Artist................... Sons of Champlin
Album.....................Hip Li'l Dreams
Label.....................Dig
Genre.....................Soul
Release...................06/02/2006
Street....................08/23/2005
Encoder...................LAME 3.97 beta
Quality...................--aps 44.1kHz/joint
# NAME TiME
01. For Joy 05:33
02. Dream on 03:56
03. I'm Not Your Lover 04:58
04. Swim 04:16
05. Hip Li'l Dreams 04:23
06. Soul Explosions 04:41
07. Bring Home the Gold 04:52
08. Maybe 05:23
09. Star Outa' You 04:49
10. "74" 04:49
11. Light Up the Candles 05:23
While never major-league San Francisco hitters back in
the day, the Sons of Champlin made some pleasantly
soulful noises, and this return to the studio could
make longtime fans drool. In many ways the music is
what they always did, just a bit longer in the tooth
and more sophisticated. Certainly the opener, "For
Joy," gets off to a cracking start. Time has only
sharpened their musical chops, and their sound is often
as smooth as cream. Sometimes, however, that's a bit
too much -- "Bring Home the Gold" ends up sounding
unfortunately as if they're auditioning to be a Chicago
tribute band, and "I'm Not Your Lover" could almost
have come out of the '80s Cyndi Lauper ballad book. At
times they try to make the rhythm sound programmed, to
offer a contemporary edge, and the "Yo" at the
beginning of "Star Outa' You" gives that very faint
urban touch. But for the most part, other than the
production gloss, this album could have stepped
straight out of the 1970s, although whether that's a
good thing or not depends on your point of view. "Swim"
has Tal Morris' guitar flying all over the place, but
for the most part it's Bill Champlin's voice and
unobtrusive keyboard style that glues everything
together. The vocal harmonies are so tight you couldn't
slip a dime between them, and the songwriting is good,
but not always inspired. But whether it will really
appeal to anyone who's not already a long-term
committed fan remains to be seen.
We use LAME 3.97 now, which is approved.
53:03 min
72,8 Mb