Stephen James Orr has just released a new song, “Someone Real” with some sublime vocals from Eunice Keitan.
This is a well structured, radio friendly neo-soul track that just oozes confidence and swagger.
From the very first second of the song, we were enthralled. This song has a really interesting funky feel to it.
The track is driven by well meshed electronic drums and bass guitar. The bass playing is gorgeous! “Someone Real” has a real sultry, sexy feel to it. The rhythm guitar is subtle and gentle in the background, just coming in and out to accent the vocals when needed.
Someone Real has a kind of late 90s girl band (a la TLC for example) about it. There were moments when the overall feel was a little like George Michael of that era except without the acres of reverb!
Vocally a very strong song. I was particularly taken with the harmonies and backing vocals. Sometimes just one harmony, sometimes several, sometimes a contrasting rhythm or line to the lead vocal, but always extremely well executed and interesting. Absolute kudos to Eunice here.
When the solo comes in, you just want to pour a shot of whiskey and just melt into the couch. This is a Santana-level perfection performance. Out of this world!
The entire frequency spectrum is covered well, and from my own stance, there’s just a few changes I’d make if I were producing the track. I do feel that the kick drum is a little lost. There’s an awful lot of information in the EQ range that’s well below most speakers capability and cleaning this up and boosting around the sub bass would bring more life to the kick. I’d also add a little low mid boost to add to the warmth in the low end. Perhaps consider a touch of reverb on those electronic drums? A little extra in the snare would really make the song zing and help the drum track feel a little more natural.
Someone Real is an extremely radio friendly blast of positivity that washes over you and brings a smile to the greyest of days. Thanks Stephen for sharing this track – we hope to hear more from you both.
We give this song our highest accolade of 5 ears out of 5. Quality musicianship.
