Make way for the new king of dance! BEGIN, James' full-album debut, exceeded my expectations by being a focused, well-done, unabashed collection of dance and electronic songs. His voice is solid, meshing well with a dance style, and the production here is top notch.
Piano-driven "Rise Above" is clearly the strongest song melodically (explaining the multiple mixes available as CD singles)--too bad this wasn't the opening track.
The dark "Tonight" is another dance gem with its spot-vocoded and pitch-shifted vocals set in a trippy groove evocative of THE MATRIX soundtrack.
The vocal club mix of "I Believe" closes the collection. While not too different from the original, it is much longer and sheds the pop vibe for a more heavy/clubby sound punctuated with some filtered vocal treatment. The lyric is relatable, touching on breakups and the hope for a true love.
Mostly a dark dance record, BEGIN is a must-have--especially for fans of the genre. It's not often a solo male dance artist (independent or not) comes along that can pull off a release of this caliber. Bravo! I cant wait to get this disk back in my CD player!
"Don't Let Me Go" (a one-off single that does not appear on BEGIN) is available for all you hard core fans... more information at www.jamesroymusic.com.
