Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Jeff's Top 10 of 2014 - #8: Leyla McCalla - Vari-Colored Songs

Leyla McCalla is best known for her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a band I love, so I was pretty excited when I heard that there was a solo record announced, but less so when I learned it was a concept album based around poetry. My fears were completely unfounded, though, as this is a pretty amazing album.

Based on the poetry of Langston Hughes and dipping deep into Haitian folk music, it's probably my favorite album this year from a purely musical basis. Beyond that, the songs are great, the concept comes across well, and the musicality really shines through, as one would expect.

Plus, "Rose Marie" is probably my son's first actual favorite song.

Definitely give this a listen if you haven't yet. It's certainly something that deserves to be heard by any lover of music, and really deserves as much acclaim as possible.


Song highlights: "Rose Marie," "Manman Mwen."

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