Album Details

• Artist: Elliott Yamin
• Album: Let's Get To What's Real
• Label: Entertainment One
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: carlita on 2012-04-20

Media

American Idol alum, Elliott Yamin, returns  to the pop scene with his third album "Let's Get to What's Real", getting back to his roots and what made him stand out, earning a third place finish during the fifth cycle of the show in 2007. I never watched American Idol faithfully but I stumbled upon him when AOL Music featured him after the release of his self-titled debut. The throaty, natural gravely quality of his voice, as well as the emotion with which he sang his trademark Donny Hathaway cover, "A Song For You" and "Movin On", made me a fan instantly.

Losing his way a bit on his second album "Fight For Love", perhaps trying to fit a pop mold that unfortunately doesn't always readily embrace down-home soul singing dudes, left me slightly disappointed and I knew he was capable of more. With "Let's Get to What's Real", there's a homecoming to authenticity much like Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics albums executed, getting back to the core of who he is, paying tribute to the styles of the soul pioneers who successfully managed to get down on songs with substance and potentially inspired love songs like "Let's Get to What's Real" and commentary tracks about the gritty city and its streetwalkers like "Downtown", bringing Stevie Wonder's "Livin For the City" to mind.

Elliott stated recently that the album "feels right, and it feels like who I am as an artist. I wanted to make something raw and soulful and organic, so I went wherever the music moved me"; it did feel right on tracks like  Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" handclap evoking  "Gather Round", "Up, Down, All Around", "Enough Love" and "Virginia", which takes the listener to "chuch" (like Snoop Dogg would say), want to dance with a tambourine and say "Amen", which is dope, transcending religious stereotype being that Elliott is Jewish. This guy's got natural soul, period.

I was rocking on every track except "3 Words", the last track on the record, which I suspect was on there, as to not completely alienate the VH-1 pop audience which made his earlier song on his debut, "Wait For You" ,a major hit. Overall, by saying he was getting back to what's real and truly delivering on the promise throughout the majority of the album, I "came on home" as a fan and will be rocking this in my CD rotation.

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