Artist: Eddie Cohn
Album: Guarantee Me Love
A growing trend in music has been for bands and musicians to release a single or two that gain popularity and guide listeners towards the remainder of their album. Unfortunately, most people are content with only listening to the popular singles and ignoring the full album. However, sometimes a musician creates an album that needs to be listened to from beginning to end to be fully appreciated. The latest album from LA singer-songwriter Eddie Cohn is one such album. Guarantee Me Love needs to be listened from the very first note of the first track to the final fading tone of the last song to understand the enormity of talent and emotion that went into creating this album.
The music on Guarantee Me Love is a mix between classic soft rock and beautifully conducted instrumental with a dash of electronic added for flavour. The songs remind me of the latest music that has been released by Sting over the last few years. The sounds are soft and sensual, with intense emotion seeping through each and every note. The songs are very much love songs, but don’t let that dissuade you from checking out the album if you aren’t a fan of sentimental music. The composition of each song is clever, and the lyrics and singing are brilliantly matched with instruments and music that enhances the overall sound and theme of each song.
However, there are a few negative elements about Guarantee Me Love that I find detract from the overall attraction of the album. The album is relatively short with only nine tracks. As well, although the songs, when listened to back-to-back, create an intense emotional reaction, I found that they didn’t really stand out and bring anything new into the genre of soft rock, and at times were even a little lacklustre. But there are two songs on this album that I absolutely love.
“don’t Disappear Yet” is one of those songs that almost left me in tears. The lyrics are very emotional and poetic, but it was the deeply rhythmic percussion and cello that seized my heart and took my breath away. I’ve always been a sucker for such a musical arrangement, and the added passionate singing made this song stick with me. It’s one that I’ve found myself often replaying.
The title track, “Guarantee Me Love”, is a similar song with more bass and slightly ethereal singing. Once again the cello accompaniment elevates this song above what I would usually expect from something like this, but it is the bass that makes this song a new favourite of mine. The lyrics are a touch repetitive, but with the heart-melting wail of the cello the overall sound is passionate and a pleading cry of emotion not often captured so intensely in music.
Although only these two attracted my ear as they contain elements that I really enjoy, each song has something to offer. As I mentioned earlier, listen to the full album to discover which one you like best as each song is different. And since the album is about love and other equally intense emotions, and we each interpret and experience these emotions differently, Eddie’s latest album may contain a song that will strike the inner cords of your heart and become your new favourite.
Samantha Stevens is an aspiring writer who loves combining her love for literature with photography, painting, music, and all creative pursuits.
