Ellis Paul - Translucent Soul

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Free Music Notes for Translucent Soul

Free Music Review: Poetry of Loss
Hit: 5 Stars

Ellis' sweetly intense voice aches to be heard with little or no accompaniment. The beautifully soft instrumentation on Translucent Soul lets that voice be heard while the percussion, electric guitar, bass, mandolin, keyboard and zamfir compliment his unique voice without overshadowing it. On several tracks the bass line is so gorgeous that the listener's ear pulls it from the background into the forefront of hearing. This is the case on "I'm The One To Save", "She Loves A Girl", "The World Ain't Slowing Down', 'Angel In Manhattan', and "Translucent Soul". "I Don't Cry Anymore" and 'Translucent Soul" both contain beautiful electric guitar solos by Duke Levine. The sweet strumming of Ellis on acoustic guitar is at its finest on "I'm The One To Save" when we get a glimpse of loss as he writes "I'm in an emotional prison of the self-inflicted kind". Loss of relationship is evident in the beautiful ballad "Seven" as he writes "I'm letting go cause holding on is killing me"; again in "Bring Me Backwards" as he writes "you stand there bleeding but the blood is mine" and additionally as he asks in the song title "Did I Ever Know You?'

For all the loss, there is just as much healing. Believers in angels as well as cynics will soar along 5th Avenue on "Angel in Manhattan" as Ellis writes "would a little faith come to harm you?" while Dar Williams adds ethereal background vocals. We're reminded to "Live In The Now" as Ellis writes "life is what happens when you're busy making plans". And in "The World Ain't Slowing Down" it's difficult not to sing along on the chorus as he sings "it's a carnival calling out to you. And it sounds like a song...".

In keeping with Ellis' earlier releases, he touches on social issues in the hauntingly beautiful "She Loves A Girl" dealing with same-sex love. The background harmony he adds to his own voice provides an exquisite sound reminiscent of Seals and Croft and the healing continues as he writes "use your love like a suture/ that's a good place to begin". And finally the title track, Translucent Soul, touches on a universal theme of friendship and unconditional love as he says to the listener to "embrace what we have in common; celebrate what sets us apart."

In "Take Me Down" Ellis writes "take me down to where I'm whole; where everybody knows me; deep as the soul can go". Translucent Soul does just that. It speaks to the heart and takes the listener to a place that we all know.

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