to listen or purchase
Gedeon Luke McKinney participated in the fifth season of American Idol. He ended up being eliminated in the round of 16. However as is often the case for the Idol franchise, McKinney, who performs as Gedeon Luke, has as much upside – if not more- than any of the semi-finalists. Soul, gospel and funk fans can catch glimpse of Luke’s winning stage presence by watching performance videos posted to YouTube, or they can listen Luke’s five track EP Perfect Ain’t Perfect.
Perfect Ain’t Perfect consists of five songs in which Luke demonstrates his mastery of several soul music elements. The opening number, “Lend Me Your Sunshine,” finds Luke mixing soul and rock on a track in which he desires to bathe in the glow of the object of his desire.
Gedeon Luke McKinney participated in the fifth season of American Idol. He ended up being eliminated in the round of 16. However as is often the case for the Idol franchise, McKinney, who performs as Gedeon Luke, has as much upside – if not more- than any of the semi-finalists. Soul, gospel and funk fans can catch glimpse of Luke’s winning stage presence by watching performance videos posted to YouTube, or they can listen Luke’s five track EP Perfect Ain’t Perfect.
Perfect Ain’t Perfect consists of five songs in which Luke demonstrates his mastery of several soul music elements. The opening number, “Lend Me Your Sunshine,” finds Luke mixing soul and rock on a track in which he desires to bathe in the glow of the object of his desire.
Luke occupies Sly Stone territory on the uplifting “Standing on Top of the World.” The track opens with Luke calling on each of his side players to introduce themselves through their instruments – kind of like Sly himself did on “Dance To the Music or, for that matter, similar to what Archie Bell did on “Tighten Up.” “Standing on Top of the World” combines the themes of both of those classic tracks. Luke takes the former’s call to take a stand on principles and merges it with the latter’s call to get on the dance floor and have a good time.
In the song “Gray,” Luke takes on current events, addressing the devastation left by Super Storm Sandy. The gray to which Luke refers in this cut – during which he fuses a funk instrumental arrangement with gospel-influenced backing vocals – is I the skies that unleashed rain, wind, and snow on the east coast. Finally, the tracks “Hurting Kind” and “Soul Child” showcase Luke’s ability to caress a love song as well stand up and tell a lady what he likes.
Luke titled the album Perfect Ain’t Perfect to make a statement about the organic manner in which he made the record. Luke eschewed the modern techniques that remove mistakes from many pop productions. Those techniques yield a pristine sounding album, but no amount of auto tune can paper over other weaknesses. Perfect Ain’t Perfect may have some production mistakes, but you’d probably have to be a recording engineer to hear them. For the rest of us Perfect Ain’t Perfect comes pretty close. Highly Recommended.
By Howard Dukes