Inspired by Mexican folk, old jazz singers, and modern pop music, Felili‘s debut album, the Moon is a hodgepodge of influences but together into a cohesive package.
Felili’s voice is dynamic. Depending on the song’s mood, she alters her voice. The album’s lead single “Hotel” has a bit of a reggae influence. Felili uses a voice somewhere between Macy Gray and Nina Simone. “Paradise” has more of a 90s alternative rock song. The voice she uses on this song is more similar to Alanis Morissette mixed with Tara Slone’s work in Joydrop.
Felili is obviously a talented vocalist, but the song writing and production are the biggest question marks on the album. “Hotel” lyrically feels mismatched. The first verse seems to be about how Felili is doing what she wants musically and does not care about what the critics think, but then the chorus is about meeting at a hotel. It feels like she had a verse and had a chorus that had nothing to do with each other and threw them together.
On the production end, “Hotel” is finely produced but other tracks are more questionable. “No Way To Know” is needlessly noisy. The disjointed drums instead of adding anything to the song actually take away from Felili’s vocal performance. In the chorus, the music is simply too loud and actually drown out the vocals. That’s not even production fault, that’s a mixing issue.
Overall, Felili has talent. Her vocals are superb but execution is where the album falters. A good voice will get you a lot of places but if the song writing is not solid, the production is not top notch, and the mixing is off, there is only so far you can go. With that said, I would still be interested in hearing more from Felili.
Rating: 4.7/10
