Allan’s World of Music

A look at Yael Naim
17 May 2008, Allan @ 6:08 pm

Yael Naim’s “New Soul” is that track for the iPod air commercial that brought her some notoriety. I dug the track in the commercial but was never really compelled to do anything about it until I saw her performance on Conan. I always like singers who have genuine skill and sing at the top of their lungs live.

I’d like to state that you’re just a jerk (or ass) if you think that Apple is the only reason that these artists are successful. I mean iPod does contribute to an artist’s success but it’s not simply Apple putting out anything and it’ll become an instant success. We choose what we want to like and artists like Feist and Cansei de ser Sexy I liked without the help of the iPod success and I’m ultimately glad they are successful cause their music is well– awesome. A lot of people are talking smoke out of their ass and let me interject that these guys probably know next to nothing if they make these statements.

However unlike the two aforementioned artists Feist and CSS, who had a considerable fanbase BEFORE Apple put them in the mainstream spotlight, it was different for Yael Naim. You know you have problems when you have to find her name by typing in “ipod commercial song” in Google to find out it’s by her.

I checked out the French-Israeli singer’s debut album which was released on March 4th in the States. Her album contains French, Hebrew and English giving me a 1/3 chance I’d understand something (sorry I hated learning le Francais - Je n’aime pas le Francais?? eh..am I saying something mean there? sorry if I am).

I still ended up liking her voice but I’m not sure she’ll be able to shake off the one-internet-hit-wonder maybe with her “Toxic” cover which is inexplicitly addictive (I HATE Britney -she stood for what was shit with the music industry). She definitely does have talent and it’s proof that seeing her live on the RealTube that she’s able to emit that.

Her career can go several ways…it may be quiet for the rest of the album, I don’t quite see another track matching up to “New Soul” which is bad in the material world. The album is still decent, but obviously with the language barrier it’s difficult to be critical. It does sound nice if I don’t get bored too quickly. Sometimes she does feel forced by jamming too many words in a breath, sometimes I just wished she would slow down and give herself and the listener a break.

I don’t think she’ll be back on the “popular” scene because so many artists come and go but hey it’s better then not making it all.

New Soul by Yael Naim

Toxic by Yael Naim

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