Echoes

Will Young: ten years of fame

Will Young, a darling of the audience, celebrated the ten-year anniversary of his Pop Idol triumph appropriately, that is with the release of the new album, his fifth studio effort. The record is titled Echoes and equipped with thirteen charming tracks which preserve Young’s vocal style and prepare some pleasant surprises for the listeners. Surprises used to be Young’s weakest side. All of his previous records enjoyed immense popularity, sported top quality performance and offered well-thought-through material; but they hardly could boast any variety. It is not difficult to suppose that the majority of Will’s supporters expected to receive from him another set of ballads and semi-ballads with plenty of strings and mighty backup vocals. No way! We can’t be sure as to when Will changed his mind, but Echoes is a different sort of music with the same top level execution.

A discreet experiment

For the making of his new album, Will Young teamed up with an established producer, Richard X, who has an experience of working with a wide range of respected performers, including Sugababes and Kelis. He, apparently, was the one who arranged Will’s journey into the world of electronic music from where the singer brought back a lot of souvenirs for his audience, presented as Echoes. This might sound alarming to those who cherish classic Will Young sound, but all the worries will be erased after listening to the album opener, Jealousy. Everything Will is loved by millions of people for is present here, his voice, his singing approach. What is new is synthesizers that influenced rather the form than the content. The new instrumental accompaniment allowed the album to change the mood, retaining the emotional charge. Will, who is a coauthor of almost all the songs here, remained a fan of sentimentality, which you sense from songs like Runaway, or Silent Valentine. What is unexpected is the reassuring tone and lively vibe of Personal Thunder, somehow linked to Pet Shop Boys, or, for example, Hearts On Fire. Another interesting piece is Happy Now that, despite the title, sounds mysterious and even uneasy.

Echoes is Young’s most standout work so far

Without warning, Will Young, all of a sudden, packed up his music and moved to a dance floor. He arranged moderate beats, hung soaring samples high above, and made himself comfortable before laying out his new effort, Echoes. He still melts the soul with his crystal clean voice and he still likes low tempo and sadness in lyrics; but all this now had received some new impulse, moved on, and is now calling you to join the motion. Echoes is hard to compare by quality with Young’s earlier works at least because the quality was always number one priority to him. But when it comes to stylistics, Echoes seems a standout piece in the singer’s discography. It looks highly likely that once the singer and the critics deem the experiment a success, electronica will become, albeit for a while, basic accompaniment for the talented British. In the meantime, many of us would rather give the amazing album Echoes another than plunge into speaking about it.