DAVID Kawika Kahiapo and producer Pierre Grill have done everything right on " 'Alana." The disc is a celebration of love, family, religious faith and Hawaiian heritage, and their choice of material, arrangements, use of guest artists, annotation and album art all help create a sharply focused musical portrait of the artist.Most of the songs are originals; the significance of the others is explained in the liner notes. The arrangements showcase Kahiapo as singer and musician; he plays all the string instruments while Grill shows commendable restraint on the synthesizers.
Chinky Mahoe is the featured voice on one of Kahiapo's Hawaiian-language originals, but the other guests remain in the background.
Controversy erupted when the Board of Education prohibited "Friends" at high school graduation ceremonies because it mentions "the Lord." An instrumental/"karaoke version" minus the trio's vocals has been added here.
THE karaoke circuit is spawning one new recording artist after another, but Jennifer Barber and her production team have created an album that's far above those thinly mixed karaoke-style efforts or the bland synthetic sound of generic local pop.First of all, Barber has a vocal presence that doesn't come from singing languid ballads or overwrought tear-jerkers in a karaoke bar. There's a deep sexy smokiness to it that hints of women who have had major national chart hits but she doesn't sound like she's trying to copy them.
Barber writes memorable lyrics in a comfortable range of styles. "Whisper to Me" and "Where Are You Today" are two of the best songs on the album; she penned both.
Some of the tracks would benefit from greater texturing, but overall the album is a beautiful calling card. If talent and commercial appeal count for anything Barber is going places!
JUSTIN (full name Justin Kawika Young) is a promising young singer and composer.He wrote six of the 10 songs here, and will be a composer to watch in the future. His originals are as good as the two pop songs that he didn't write - "One Year Together" and "Now I'm Free." Two Hawaiian songs by other writers - the traditional "Ikona" and "Pau'oa Liko Ka Lehua" by Emma Bush - show that he can go beyond local pop.
"Ikona" showcases a fine falsetto. On the debit side, "One Year Together" is a good lyric concept squandered on a generic Jawaiian arrangement and lame imitation-Jamaican rapping. Even with that misfire, Justin should prove to be more than a "flavor of the week" local teen vocalist.