Today I have something for you, coming from the one and only Alistair McLovan aka “Ali Love”. He was signed with Columbia Records and now goes on with Back Yard Recordings.
Maybe you have seen him, because he released a number of hits and is still active in the music business with his new album “Love Harder” including a smash hit “Diminishing returns”, but before that he had major success with his top hit “Secret Sunday lover” peaked at #22 on the UK Physical single chart and “Late night session (UK #123)”, both released under his own record label “I Love Records”. Both originate from his first album “Love music”. Now, strangely this album has only been promoted but never really released because Columbia Records (by Sony Music entertainment) dropped him together with the album. Luckily I got the chance to grasp this promo from ebay. So here we go:
Ali Love –
Love MusicLabel: I ♥ Records
Catalog#:ALPR005
Format: CDr, Album, Promo
Type: Debut album
Country: UK
Released: 2007
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul, Rock
Style: Electro, Pop Rock, Soul, Disco
1 Late Night Session (4:04)
2 Secret Sunday Lover (3:40)
3 Shangri-La (2:31)
4 Rebound Lover (3:23)
5 Rock N Roll Control (3:27)
6 Love Cliché (3:50)
7 Vincent Brain (3:31)
8 K-Hole (3:14)
9 Video Dream Girl (2:55)
10 Golden Cage (3:40)
11 Doin' The Dirty (6:09)
12 Untitled
All tracks written by A.Love except:
Track 2 - Written by A.Love, M.J Knight & L.Loveday
Track 5 - Written by A.Love & R.Harder
Track 6 – Written by A.Love & K.P.Scott
Straight to the point: “Late Night session” is in my opinion the best song. Why? Because it really outperforms the other songs with its catchy tune, nice electro, combined careful but just right with his guitar. I think his voice is also the most appropriate with this song; it doesn’t distract you in any way. Okey, it’s more of a disco tune which is in my favor and thereby be abit biased, but heey who doesn’t love disco? The timing in this song together with the right amount of verse, choruses and bridge makes it a complete package.
Going remixed to the second song of this album “Secret Sunday lover” outperformed the first one in the charts with its “haa haa, haa hoo”. Again a catchy pop, electronic dance tune with a variety of weird sounds, and a nice chorus. Its really funky, but the second best song? Difficult, but I think not. This song has a real “If you hear it more than twice, things can get pretty irritating” factor, so what follows number one?
That must be either “Love Cliché” or “Doin’Dirty”, where the last one is based upon Secret Sunday lover. Love Cliché is all about relaxing, a very nice beat with some fluently guitar strings and a calm voice. It’s basic, but sometimes that is better. It sounds pretty for the ear and mind and the chorus is quite distinctively. For chill out sessions, lounge bars or late night disco its an ideal song and thereby I crown it as the second best song. Following is “Doin’ Dirty” with actually some nice female vocals. A song that doesn’t feel misplaced in for example the movie “The Loser, 2010”. Claps, weird sound effects and some excessive synthesizer usages define this song, but relatively speaking, its not that good at al. Falling outside the top three, yes.
“Rock and Roll control” consists of some very groovy beats. Nice electronic’s combined with Ali Love’s voice is really nice, only the lyrics are abit pale, but on the other hand check the sound effect on 37 seconds. Crispy! Golden Cage as the last pop disco song is also not that bad, but you have to listen to it more than once. Okey, it’s based on “Late night sessions” but it’s not a complete package, it doesn’t click as much.
Now, there is some sort of a division on this album. On the one side you have the clear and crisp electronic pop and disco songs, and on the other side, hmm yes, abit more 60’s, 70’s pop rock fused with electric. With “Vincent Brain”, “K-hole”, “Video Dream girl” and the best of that side “Rebound Lover”. The first three are in my opinion not at home on this album, the combination doesn’t click and it sounds very confused/chaos. Don’t even go to “Shangri-La”. I’m not sure if it actually refers to the paradise out of James Hiltons book the last horizon, but the lyrics are weird. It has some weird background vocals which make the song sound out of tune somewhat. Rebound Lover all and all is a normal top40 song, which is nice on outside pool parties, so that makes it the best song after the top three.
Conclusion: an album with some sort of courage combining styles and shows a great division among tracks. I think this album is very nice if you look at the top tracks, which is more than enough for a debut album! You can buy his singles everywhere and of course his new album. I will try to get some samples asap from this album on the blog.
Top Three: "Late Night Session","Love Cliché", "Secret Sunday Lover"
Ultimatebart star rating: ★★★☆☆
Video clips:
"Late Night Session"
"Love Cliche"
Ali Love - Love cliche (Sample from the album "Love Music") by ultimatebart2
"Doin' Dirty"
Ali Love - Doin' dirty (sample from the album "Love Music") by ultimatebart2
"K-Hole"
New Song "Diminishing Returns"
