It’s effing Blake Lewis stupid. He is the most talented person to ever be on American Idol. Sorry, argument over. I realize many people will never take American Idol seriously, which is too bad really. As a pop music fan the show is perennially entertaining and really has produced some great pop stars & thus some great pop songs (“Since U Been Gone”: Kelly Clarkson... Hello!).
Blake Lewis fascinated me the first time I saw him on the show which in itself was a minor miracle since usually I am obsessed with girl pop stars. He did his little beat-boxing thing which was clever, but when he sang he sounded like a lost synth-pop throwback lead singer from the ’80’s. I was intrigued.
At one point during the sixth season of Idol he sang “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane and I was a fan; if for nothing else simply because he knew that song and then proceeded to nail it. He struck me as an artist, which made him seem a bit out of place on a singing show. Blake Lewis would talk about producing, DJ’s, and remixing and then he would apply all that shit to his performance. Several times during that season I would turn to my girlfriend smiling and simply say, “Damn, this guy is good. He was just born on the wrong side of the pond.” He was always on. And I was right.
He came in second that year, but I felt confident it didn’t quite matter; he was gonna be ok based on pure talent. His first record Audio Day Dream came out and I bought it. It was quite good if not a bit scattered, but there were definitely swatches of the pop brilliance I had seen during his performances on Idol.
I guess I was sorta wrong, because that album just sold ok and Blake Lewis got dropped from his label like so many Idols before him (Ahh, the fickle world of pop culture and record labels). He was luckily (and smartly) picked up by Tommy Boy Records... which leads us to now.
Last month Blake Lewis quietly put out one the best records of the year, Heartbreak On Vinyl. It is simply brilliant if you enjoy dance/electronic/pop music. It harkens back to 1980’s pop music and at this point I wouldn’t feel crazy mentioning it in the same breath as Thriller, Off The Wall, Rhythm Nation 1814, or other great cohesive pop masterpieces from that decade. Heartbreak On Vinyl is that good. Each time I listen to it I hear something else I like. It is electro-pop goodness.
Therein lies the rub. Once again I find myself thinking Blake Lewis is probaly just simply on the wrong side of the Atlantic Ocean. Right now across the pond there is a 80’s Synth-Pop Revival going on (i.e. LaRoux, Little Boots, Sam Sparro, Calvin Harris, etc.). America is not really on that boat right now. I was playing the record for a friend the other day and she summed it perfectly, “This is really, really good, but it doesn’t fit in anywhere.”
I hope that the record finds an audience. I am making a personal crusade include a track on mix cd’s I make for people and play it for anyone who I think has a snowball’s chance in hell at caring. It’s really damn good.
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