Review: "Spotlight People" by Ginger Root
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The album starts out with some angelic harmonies—courtesy of Kira Magoon—and when the keyboards, drum machine, and Cameron Lew’s whispery-but-strong vocals enter, you know you’re in for something intimate. “Emulous,” the first track, is not only perhaps the most gorgeous piece on the album, but, if there is a stand out single, this is it. It sounds a bit like falling asleep next to your lover.
Track two of this 9-song LP is “In My Dreams,” a more upbeat, dance-able, groovy tune that has a Fitz and the Tantrums feel, followed by “Belleza,” which harkens back to Motown, sung as a call and response between Lew and Emily Iverson, and which like the two tracks before it, has the feeling of falling in love imbued all throughout it.
Right in the middle of the LP is “The Classic,” which takes on a more experimental spin—it’s a super funky tune that lasts just over three minutes, during which people talk about seemingly random stuff over top of the instruments. It’s a fun listen and a nice insertion into the center of the album, a little intermission from the straight pop tunes that surround it.
“Thx,” the album closer, is another standout track, with its soft/loud dynamics, a catchy wistful chorus, and some organ thrown into the mix.
Spotlight People is, overall, a strong offering from Ginger Root, with the most memorable moments taking place when male and female vocals come together to tell a story, but from beginning to end every song is worth a spin.
L.M. Alder is a writer and musician from New Jersey. He is the co-author of A Cathedral in a Mason Jar (tNY.Press, 2016) and is in the band The Deafening Colors.