REVIEW: Eagle Eye Cherry, Desireless (WORK)
- Lang Whitaker
Let me go ahead and get this out of the way, because if you can embrace this, it will make your listening experience ten times more pleasureable: Eagle Eye Cherry sings like Ben Harper. A lot. I'm talking *identical*. It's not a once in a while thing like the Adam Duritz/Van Morrison comparisons; this is almost mind boggling.
So you got that? You cool with it? Good. Now you can listen to Eagle Eye Cherry's melodious debut release Desireless without prejudice. The extravagantly named Cherry is indeed kin to Neneh Cherry (the singer not the porn star), she of the, "Buffalo Stance," hit single from the early part of this decade.
It doesn't take an eagle eye to see several songs destined for mainstream radio. "Save Tonight," a plea for one final hook-up before the morning comes, is already making a dent at Top 40 stations around the US, and Cherry is reportedly hotter than the weather has been lately over in England.
The sound of Desireless is sort of Ben Harper (again) meets Paula Cole. Airy acoustic guitars drive the music, with similarly pressing percussion underneath. Cherry also has a great ear for melodies; each song has a sing-along chorus suitable for a campfire near you. In fact, despite the heavy subject matter of several songs, Desireless is harder to hold down than Puff Daddy. The songs project an inner sunshine that would bring smiles to even those forced to sit through an episode of, "The Magic Hour."
Cherry tends to dwell on love during Desireless, as many of the songs ("Save Tonight," "Comatose (In the Arms of Slumber), "Worried Eyes,") touch on commitment and the renewing of that commitiment in relationships. The perils of drug usage is also a popular topic, in songs like, "Shooting Up in Vain," and, "Death Defied by Will." Aiding and abetting Cherry are a collection of assorted musicians with names that enjoy throwing consonants around haphazardly (Niklas, Kviman, Fjallstrom).
As a Ben Harper fan, I've always wondered what would happen if he took the chip off his shoulder and had a little fun. Now I know.
