Intimacy: Album III

Kem’s hard work did not go to waste

It is no secret that almost every second musician has survived a personal crisis at least once in lifetime, as well as dealt with alcohol and drugs and lost interest to life. Each time in these cases the bad period either ended and everything simply returned to what it had always been or it was followed by realization of one’s new possibilities, and an artist gets a store of inspiration for several years in advance. Some stories, though, begin with such bad times. Kem Owens, performing a wonderful mixture of R&B, soul and jazz, had no idea what to with his life after finishing school feeling deeply lonely. The feeling of isolation made him leave home, steal food, seep outside and take to drugs. Yet everything changed at some point; Kem found a spiritual potential in him and started composing. He waited tables and sang at weddings to release his debut album Kemistry, and that hard work did not just go to waste. Today Kem is a real star and this year his already third creation Intimacy: Album III is released.

Intimacy: Album III is about love and family

After all of his troubles and hard times Kem is obviously unwilling to remember them preferring to enjoy what he has found to date – love and family. The only thing he sings about is relationship. Yet there is room not only for the dating-time excitement and the serene days of the beloved, but also for break ups, cheating and unrequited love in his lyrics. Kem only needs 10 tracks (with the exception of the second album that has 11) to cover all this themes. The general mood on Intimacy: Album III is romantic because even in his suffering Kem uses the gentlest worlds when addressing to his lover. The album opens with When I'm Loving You, on which Kem depicts magic images describing his attitude to his heroine against the background of a slow guitar and unobtrusive light beat. This atmosphere continues on one of the most sensual compositions Can You Feel It and on the very soulful Share My Life, on which we can hear very high notes in the singer’s vocals rendering all the strength of his passion. Yet one of the album’s definite highlights is the single Why Would You Stay. This song performed on behalf of a man who has betrayed his girl-friend’s trust and having no idea how to make her forgive him now for he completely acknowledges his fault. This is such a common situation among couples that the song has immediately found its listener, and the single is constantly played at popular radio stations. Another interesting moment is A Mother's Love, on which Kem, a father of two daughters, plays a different role enjoying his family life. The album closes with a most beautiful jazz composition Golden Days which offers a spoken word from Jill Scott, the only guest star on the album.

Strong emotions in impressively wide ranged vocals

It is not hard to guess that Kem’s basic audience is that female for women are inclined to analyze relationships, looking for break up reasons, create the romantic atmosphere and pay attention to trifles on the whole to a considerably greater extent than men. Judging by everything the singer himself is quite satisfied with that for his third album Intimacy: Album III is the sophomore effort’s direct continuation. Though the very simple arrangements are made with the help of contemporary technologies they send us 30 years back when jazz and soul sounded only with the accompaniment of guitar, piano and a light percussion. Objecting against letting the today’s hip-hop aggression into his music Kem remains faithful to the gentle, very sensual harmonies which broken only by the strong emotions in his impressively wide ranged vocals. On the one hand Kem has calmly occupied his own niche, defining himself in the plural crowd of R&B-perfomers singing about what is dear to him, on the other hand, he may soon get bored of this image of a romantic and sincere crooner with the right values and he will create something completely different; no one has yet cancelled the personal crisis.