Dada Veda
Love is the Best
reviewed by Gary Levinson
One of the Indie Music world’s most anticipated releases, Dada Veda’s Love is the Best is finally here. With his new album, Dada Veda presents us songs in a variety of musical directions: doo-wop, gospel, reggae, blue grass, barber shop, honky tonk, R and B, country, folk, rock….
Was it worth the wait? Let’s look at some of the songs:
We Are Never Alone or Helpless, the opening track is a rocking, southern R and B flavored song, reminiscent of some of Leon Russell’s work. It has a catchy Nashville sound, and it encapsulates the basis of yoga philosophy: “You are never alone or helpless. The force that guides the stars guides you too.”
From Zero to Hero is one of my favorites. The honky-tonk riffs, and the slightly unpolished backing vocals support the song’s message: We all have the capacity to turn the zero into hero.
Liberate Your Mind is about breaking free from worry, and as such is also about basic yoga philosophy. The barber-shop style singing on the background vocals, makes it clear to all that even a group a 40-something men can be interested in this renunciation of worry. Like my Grandmother says: “Why worry? It doesn’t help.”
I’m Waiting for That Time is a song about longing for a hoped-for future time of social justice. It is appropriately in the style of worker-revolution songs from the 1920’s and 30’s.
A Better Deal is a song in a country-folk style, with backing vocals, and is really about the ethical treatment of some of the other sentient creatures on this planet, namely the animals, many of which are murdered to provide food for the species that is in the position of power to murder them, namely the Homo Spaiens. A Better Deal describes the satisfaction, both moral and physical, that comes from having a vegetarian diet. Diipak gives us on this number some interesting violin accompaniments.
My Heart Will Go on Loving You is the most rock oriented song on the album and is a spiritual love song.
Open My Heart Wide, a bhajan done in the style of 1950’s rock ’n’ roll. Listen to the doo-wop backing vocals. Can this be a true bhajan? My answer is simply: Why not?
Love is the Best: like my friend Praveda once said “Kjærlighet er alt!” (sometimes things can be said more succinctly in a foreign language. I guess the English would be “Love is everything”, or else maybe, like the Beatles said, “Love is all you need”) and that is the message of this song. Of all the songs on this album, this song has the most New York, that is to say Lou Reed style. It is an appropriate wrap-up to the Dada Veda penned lyrical content on this album.
The next songs are two versions of kirtan, yoga spiritual dance songs. The first, Good Old Kirtan, sounds like it could have been recorded live before a meditation session. The second, Kirtan Remix, is my favorite song on the album: Mantra music with the beat of today. It sounds like Joy Division or New Order gone from depressed to spiritual. And I was thinking that that is exactly Dada’s goal: to transform the feelings that people have in this materialistic world from the depressing to the uplifting, by realizing the spiritual nature of existence.
As we asked earlier: was it worth the wait? The answer is a definite yes. Dada Veda’s voice – his singing – has made a quantum improvement. Surely proof that practice makes perfect. The musicians are highly skilled, and the production, by Ryan Sam, is first class. With this album Dada Veda has raised the bar, not only for his own future albums, but for spiritually minded Indie Musicians as well. A real smörgåsbord of styles, Love is the Best is a real treat. Although the year is only half through, Dada Veda’s Love is the Best is one of the best Indie Music albums of 2009.
reviewed by Gary Levinson
IndieMusicReview.NET
http://www.myspace.com/dadaveda
Entries (RSS)