I am setting myself a challenge. I am going to go through this entire appraisal of Guy Sebastian's latest record without using the dreaded 'I-word' once. The reason I'm doing this is because One A Day now has some 400 regular American readers, who have the unique ability of being able to judge Sebastian based on his musical merit alone, not his television background. As for you Australians, abandon your preconceptions and listen; Guy is not only a phenomenally talented musican who we have sidelined for too long, but he is also about as far away from 'that juggernaut' at the moment as you could possibly imagine.
Little brother Z has had a huge music-geek-crush on Sebastian ever since he relocated to Memphis to write an album of soul covers. D and I endured the hyperbole if only because the tunes were pleasant enough that we didn't want to claw our eyes out. However, with Like It Like That (confusing, it's the name of the album and the first single), Guy's back in the driver's seat. He wrote all the melodies, harmonies, guitar, bass, drums, keys, you name it and he's done it. He might just be our answer to Prince, except he's got some tough competition from the similarly multi-talented, jack-of-all-trades producer/drummer/singer Wally de Backer (Gotye, the Basics).
The truth of the matter is, if you were a Martian (or an American) and you didn't know who Sebastian was, chances are you'd embrace his cutting-edge neo-soul with open arms. It's the same kind of instrumentation and arranging present on Mark Ronson's last album, and look how much everybody loves him, when in reality, all he does is throw in some horns and/or Lily Allen to make bands like Kaiser Chiefs and The Zutons sound infinitely more sexy than they are on their own. (Apologies, I think the Kaiser's Ricky Wilson is a sex god. If I don't say that, he'll knock me out next time he's down here, which is very often.) This song, 'Attention', is fucking groovy. Guy's voice slides all over the place, but it's all controlled. Clearly 2008-9-10 is going to be the Four Tops and Temptations revival era, and Sebastian, alongside Ronson and Mayer Hawthorne is leading the pack. I especially dig the abso-freaking-lutely huge horn parts in the chorus. He would have blown his entire recording budget on that. I'm impressed.
Guy Sebastian - 'Attention'
PS: I did it. I didn't mention it once. Take that, Dicko and Marcia.
PPS: Guy recently made headlines by saying "I think the show [you know which one] misses Kyle [Sandilands]." (Story) He may just be right, this season is the most woefully boring on record and we'd welcome back Vile Sandyhands if he could inject some glorious poison into the downward spiralling show helmed only by the increasingly disinterested Mr G.
Guy Sebastian Online
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