Campbell: Tuned In: Peaches, Elliott Yamin, Samantha Crain and The Midnight Shivers

Diversified Peaches stays true to fans

“I FEEL CREAM,” Peaches (XL)

Peaches is ripe for a wider audience, and that seems important on a cultural level.

The DIY-electro performer, a former mentor of M.I.A., has broadened her sound with her new “I Feel Cream,” though her potentially liberating, and blunt, treatment of sexuality is uncompromised.

She collaborated with other electronic/dance producers for “I Feel Cream,” and the usual rubbed-sore side effect of her aggressively grainy sound is mitigated by some uncharacteristically polished tracks. A few in her established cult following will balk when they listen to something akin to the Pussycat Dolls or Kylie Minogue coming from their heroine, but if it extends her reach to new converts, it’s for the greater good.

Besides, it’s tantalizing to hear the usually bold Peaches explore dainty vulnerability on the glistening “Lose You” and title track, and her explosive belting on the ripping single “Talk to Me” is both startling and mesmerizing: “Lift your head and look me dead in the eye/What made you so bitter inside?/Why don’t you talk to me?”

Meanwhile, Peaches rewards her loyalists with the more expected throbbing and pulsing sensations of cuts such as the sweaty “Serpentine,” the methodical grinder “Mud” and the sinister “More” that captivates with foreboding lines like, “Seems he got a little bit more than you asked for.” Fans who question her veracity need only hear her proclamation on the clanging “Trick or Treat”: “Never go to bed without a piece of raw meat.”

“I Feel Cream” is a modern marvel that delves into the powerful, primal need for sex and how it drives who we are.

This isn’t a typical tease from a dancefloor diva, it’s a full-blown delivery.

Rating (five possible): 4-1/2

Elliott Yamin should have fought for originality

“FIGHT FOR LOVE,” Elliott Yamin (Sony/Hickory)

Perhaps Elliott Yamin’s strategy is to establish himself as part of the pack before he breaks from the pack. That’s the polite way to speculate on his new “Fight for Love,” a Sony-backed release that follows 2007’s indie success, “Elliott Yamin.”

In 2006, Yamin finished third on “American Idol” during the show’s fifth (and highest-rated) season. His soulful voice is “Idol”-worthy, though there’s not much soul to “Fight for Love,” a mercenary-feeling product that’s unabashedly commercial.

The release is a superficial success — well-produced, mostly contemporary-R&B-minded, flush with infectious hooks. And Yamin’s vocals are distinct and strong, enriching the bumping vibe of “Let Love Be” and hitching a ride on the dance groove of “Don’t Be Afraid.”

Closing cut “Someday” is a poignant tribute to Yamin’s late mother, who died in 2008, and his restraint helps dignify lines such as, “Do you still hear me when I sing for you?” Meanwhile, the vocalist hits his stride with rare excursions into timelessness, including on the natural-sounding hot soul of “Cold Heart,” where a scuffed arrangement sets up Yamin for lyrics like, “I’ll keep your number, but I know you’ve got a cold, cold heart.”

Beyond the formulaic songs, the biggest problem with “Fight for Love” is Yamin’s unvaried delivery. He has the fundamental voice of a great singer, yet he doesn’t project enough charisma or alter his tone to convey shifting emotions. Listeners must rely on the lyrics to understand his alleged mood, and that creates another problem because the words are often inarticulate, little more than accessible cliches thrown together with no bigger meaning. Confused, contradictory lines put an irrational spin on “You,” for example, and when he sings, “How do I know when it’s over?” ... well, even a child could tell him a relationship is already over when you start wondering how you can tell when it’s over.

The trend-conscious “Fight for Love” is serviceable, but Yamin can clearly do better.

Rating: 2-1/2

Self-conscious darkness gets in ‘Night’s’ way

“SONGS IN THE NIGHT,” Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers (Ramseur)

Samantha Crain employs an oddly open style of enunciation to lure listeners to sail on the dark waters of her ominous lyrics. But those who have been successfully summonsed to “Songs in the Night” may eventually feel like they’re adrift on Crain’s sea of obscurity.

“Songs in the Night” is the stuff of wee-hour panic, when troubling thoughts penetrate the soul as the rest of the world obliviously sleeps. The Oklahoma-native singer/songwriter, still in her early 20s, anxiously and repeatedly revisits themes of regret, crying and limbo. She also makes several references to childhood, indicating she wishes to be a child again or she only relates to children or ... eh, it’s not real clear. Fact is, nothing’s clear about the lyrics on “Songs in the Night,” and those who don’t enjoy being kept in the dark will eventually grow tired of Crain’s self-pitying ways, ethereal vocal or no ethereal vocal.

In sharp contrast to the esoteric frontwoman, Crain’s band, The Midnight Shivers, is bluntly straightforward. The trio of men knock through Americana-kissed folk/rock with the usual instruments (guitar, bass, drums) plus the likes of mandolin, harmonica, Wurlitzer and mini Moog. The arrangements are accessible, though not especially memorable.

That unobtrusive music is likely by design so the focus never leaves the awkwardly introspective Crain, whether she sings, “It’s a perfect day for dying” (on “Bananafish Revolution”) or, “My crying wounds, your blotted blood/Our feet stuck in a mile of mud” (or “You Never Know”). Her vision sharpens on grim closer “The Dam Song” (“The water is pushin’/The river is wishin’/The dam would break”), yet by then many listeners likely will have given up trying to understand her.

Rating: 3

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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