By Max Barsby: CJ Li is a singer/songwriter from Vancouver, Canada. She’s currently unsigned but with over 1,300 subscribers on her Youtube channel, and one album already under her belt, prior to her most recent release, she’s not doing too badly.
Her most recent release is the ten-track Music in My Soul, which is truly a brilliant piece of work, so much so it has got Li interest from major record labels. The most noticeable difference between this album and her previous, What If is Li’s improved vocal performance and that coupled with excellent musicianship and production, create an excellent end result.
The first track on the album is Something Beautiful, previously released as a digital single. It is a brilliant opening to the album, edging you in carefully with a slow start before kicking in. Musically it is brilliant, the best performance coming from bass player Patrick Lee, especially in the second verse.
The second track Serves You Right is one of my favourites. It has a mixture of slow verses and a fast chorus and both bass and guitar are excellent, we also start to see the lyrical capability of Li shine through in this track. The end of this track did trigger memories of the first album of Li’s fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne, but I’m sure that’s something Li’s heard only too often.
After the first two tracks, track three, Fall But We Flourish is fairly average, but once again the lyrics show Li’s ability and penchant for ballsy in your face pop-rock songs.
If nothing else, track four, Powertrippin’ in Your Underwear has possibly one of the most brilliant song titles I’ve ever come across, purely due to absurdity. This track is a fun song that will immediately catch your ear. Once again the lyrics are brilliant and this will be one of the songs that will definitely get stuck in your head.
Track five is the album title track and token rock album ballad. I have a few problems with this song, aside from of course the double negative at the start: “I don’t need nobody” which always makes me cringe. Firstly the line “There’s always been one thing that I really didn’t know” doesn’t seem to fit in with the verse and Li even has to sing it faster to make it do so. Also though Li’s vocal performance is brilliant in the verses, it really falls down in the chorus. What I really do like about this song is the use of violin and piano, which really do add something to the song’s overall feel. The album contains a Japanese version of this song as bonus track, though I was disappointed to find only the chorus was in Japanese, but perhaps to have the whole song in the language is asking too much of Li’s Japanese ability.
Circus is a crazy, funky song, totally different from anything Li has ever done before. It is somewhat reminiscent of some of the tracks on Lily Allen’s album, It’s Not Me, It’s You and that is by no means a bad thing.
Track seven is Monique’s Song (Your Smile) dedicated to Monique Ishikawa who tragically died at the age of nineteen in a car accident at the Canada/US border in late May 1998. Li was so moved by her story wrote the song in memory of her and was later thrilled to hear that Monique’s father has heard the song and messaged her saying: “This is stunningly good. Wish [she] were around to hear it.” [Quote taken from cjli.net]. The song isn’t a typical tearjerker, ballad memorial song, instead its upbeat and happy focusing on the good bits of Monique’s life and is also one of the best songs on the album.
Track eight is That’s How The Story Goes and is without a doubt the best song on the album. We know Li likes ballsy songs, but this is the heaviest song Li has released and I demand more. The lead guitar on this track in phenomenal and since no single guitarist is mentioned in the CD insert I cannot say who performs it, but I commend them. On top of that, once again Li astounds me with her lyrical ability and on this track she really comes into her own.
Track nine Pizza in Your Belly is the final track aside from the bonus and a fans’ favourite. The song is a complete nonsense song and is another funky track to sit alongside Circus. Once again Patrick Lee’s bass playing is excellent and you can really hear the happiness in Li’s voice as she sings this one.
All in all CJ Li has created a brilliant album and very little bad can be said about it. This young Canadian has a bright future ahead of her and as long as she keeps singing they’ll always be music to put a smile on my face.
A physical copy of Music in My Soul can be bought on CJ Li’s website: www.cjli.net or you can get a digital copy on itunes.
You can follow CJ Li’s escapades on her Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/cjlimusic.
