[REKIDS]
Blessed with an expressive voice and an talented producer to boot, James Teej was all but destined to quickly leapfrog the lower rung labels he started with. Two years after his debut the Canadian producer was entrusted by Matt Edwards’ REKIDS to make an album, Evening Harvest, which arrived in May. Its first single, Seven Day Mend, neatly encapsulates Teej’s appeal and hints at his weaknesses. Surrounded by ascending organ chords vocalist Richie Henessey pleads, “If I said I love you, would you help me?” as multi-tracked harmonies enrich the performance. Only when he begins howling needlessly does the tune lose poise and call into question Teej’s taste level (like his eye roll-inducing cover of Bowie’s “Space Oddity”), although DJs can transition beforehand. Spencer Parker punts and fashions an extended edit that nearly doubles the runtime, removes the screams and leaves in some poorly synced vocals. This “hired gun” should’ve given more effort.
Correction: A previous version of this review stated it was Teej who sang on “Seven Day Mend.” The review has been edited to reflect that the vocalist was Richie Henessey.
Though I have always respected LWE, and up to this point been an avid reader of the site (even after receiving harsh criticism)… after reading this obviously misinformed review, I felt the strong need to respond to this directly.
I have always prided myself on taking any criticism of my work constructively, may it be positive or negative… however I do expect that any reviewer will also equally spend the time to know exactly what they are talking about.
In this case you have made it a point, once again, to reiterate the fact that you are not a fan of my Space Oddity project, or any of my vocals for that matter… which is totally fine by me.
BUT if you are going to use this opinion as a basis to judge a completely separate track, I would hope for one that you would know who is even singing, or involved for that matter.
If you would have actually taken the time to look at the credits of Seven Day Mend, or maybe even actually listen to it, you would realize that the track was not sung by me, but by another artist from here in Toronto… (I’ll let you look that one up)
That being said, if you are going to judge an artist’s work based on previous efforts… it would be nice if you made sure they were the one’s that you were actually talking about.
I will be sure to pass along your thoughts on the quality of the vocal work to the ACTUAL vocalist… and considering my music is obviously so offensive and disappointing to you, will be glad to make sure that you stop receiving any more of it FREE OF CHARGE lol
Thanks for the laugh
James
James,
I’m glad to hear you’ve been an avid reader of LWE. As you well know, then, we’re capable of high praise and stark criticism when we feel it necessary. Overall I think this review is mostly positive about you, your vocals, and this track, which is largely enjoyable. Pointing out a 30 second passage that, to my ears, was less effective and unnecessary was as much part of the task as praising the rest. I even added that this moment was not enough to keep DJs from playing it because they could transition beforehand. I think that’s giving it a fair shake in a short review.
I understand you don’t appreciate that I tied this track to your cover of “Space Oddity.” Putting records in context with the rest of the producer’s discography is something we generally try to do. In this case, “Space Oddity” was the last time I questioned your taste level; and though the tracks are quite different, the anguished screams on “Seven Day Mend” (whoever they were by) made me wonder in much the same way why you would include them. It’s also worth mentioning that whatever feedback we left for “Space Oddity” did not appear on LWE.
If I have any regrets about this review, it’s that I didn’t realize you were not its vocalist. But this wasn’t casual neglegence. Like all our reviews this was fact-checked, and in no place that we looked was the vocalist’s identity noted: not on the official promo we received, the record’s back cover (to the best of my eyesight), your Myspace page, the Discogs listing, in any of the stores we saw it in, or even in RA’s review. You didn’t even mention who he was in your comment. We vastly prefer to correctly attribute the elements of each track, but when the facts are buried and not mentioned on the package, doing so is difficult at best. If this was a crucial part of the track for you, I would expect it to be plainly stated. But no matter who did the singing, the fact remains that I found parts of their performance unappealing.
As someone who strives to take criticism constructively I would encourage you not to be put off by a difference in opinion, especially when it’s part of a review that overall takes a positive view of the main track and you as an artist. I think the greatest lesson for both of us to take away from this is the importance of clearly crediting a release’s performers — both on the label side and the reviewing side. I will edit the review to correctly state that it’s someone else singing, and I urge you to disclose who that actually is.
Thanks for the response, and point taken.
I understand that LWE sometimes has strong viewpoints, and perhaps, as in this case, it helps create a dialog about the music. This, I will admit though, just caught me off guard.
So to further clarify, the artist who sang the vocals is actually Richie Henessey (aka Sroc from the Canadian hip-hop group Brass Munk). He is a Toronto based soul singer/songwriter who I have collaborated with both in the studio and in live performance over the past 4 years.
Cheers,
James
Thanks for the information and your understanding.
No matter the argument, the track is brilliant…