Photo Credit: Facebook.com/AdySuleimanMusic

Ady Suleiman is originally a Sony Music artist who left to record his extremely innovative pop album, Memories. Honestly, calling it pop is almost insulting as it contains elements of so many other genres. R&B, acoustic music, Jazz and funk/neo-soul all come to mind when listening to many tracks on this album.

“I Remember” is the first track on Memories and it has an incredible and almost comical feel to it. For starters, hearing Suleiman casually drop “F Bombs” over acoustic guitar and island conga drum vibes is very interesting. The aspects of layering and breakdown sections are so well timed on this track. When the bass finally comes in after a minute and ten seconds, the listener will find their head bopping and by the time horns come in around the minute and a half mark, you’ll be full on grooving. It is such a good opening track for the album. The vibe reminded me of Bruno Mars’ early work with Travie McCoy.

The third track entitled, “Longing for Love” is a more emotion-filled tune starting with a stripped vibe similar to the first track except this song features a string section. The strings give a wonderful contrast and timbre variety to the track. There is also a solo trumpet on this song that gives a good variety to the track. This song is definitely a stand out on this album for its great mixture of emotion and musicality.

The 10th track, “If I Die” has the most somber lyrical content referring to the hope of Suleiman to have a legacy after he dies. The song has very lush chords featuring strings in full focus with a backbeat on the drums. The feel contrast between the string section and acoustic flute/horn section from the rhythm section and varied electronic elements makes for some great listening. The vocal harmonies in place also add some color to the song. This piece is well balanced and provides a very interesting vibe to a varied album.

The album title track, “Memories” is definitely the darkest track on this release. The song starts with some airy vocal synths and progresses to add acoustic guitar and of course, the main vocals. There are some awesome breakdown sections here with harmonized vocals and bass that are very effective in breaking up the melody and the repetitive backing track. There is a very tasteful distorted guitar solo here that really adds to the dark nature of the tune. Despite the piece’s 5 minute and 24 second length, it has a great amount of variety in regards to full-track stops to make it interesting.

Overall, this album was fantastic! As an artist emerging on the scene for the first time since a label change, Memories is definitely a passion project. From the acoustic instruments, to the soulful lyrics and inflection, everything is thought out well and executed perfectly. This album was more of a 54-minute experience than many others previously released in 2018 and it is thoroughly enjoyable. Check out Memories for some incredible works of music mastery!

Written by: Colin Logatto