I've gone through some stuff with Blake Lewis since his time on American Idol. I was in love with him and his edgy fashion sense, beatboxing skills and brave reimaginings of the songs he performed. His funky lead single, "Break Anotha" landed in my top 25 for 2007, and "You Give Love A Bad Name" was the first American Idol performance I ever downloaded. His album Audio Day Dream was a very chill collection of electropop, which I'm sure is why it did not produce any hits. After what appeared to be a homophobic remark in Blender magazine, I decided I wasn't interested in following his career anymore. But after a pleasant interview with out blogger Raj at Electroqueer I gave in and started putting his songs on my playlists again.
Now Blake has a track produced by Darude on Dance 4 Life, a techno album benefiting AIDS and HIV charities. Not exactly a homophobic move, methinks. The track features a little bit of his beatboxing and a lot of brilliant European style techno. This may be the beginning of a rise in Blake Lewis's profile in the electronic field. Listen to "Selfless" below.
But wait! There's more Darude-produced goodness available! Besides the charity album, Blake and Darude have also released a single. It's a cover of Flock Of Seagulls 1982 hit "I Ran (So Far Away)" and it's fantastic! Probably better than "Selfless" or anything off of Audio Day Dream with it's heavy sound and a driving pulse. No crazy hairdo required to love it, though. Listen to the radio edit here. Or download the full single, with 5 remixes and a full length edit from the iTunes.
2 comments:
He's playing a gay club next weekend ;) definitely not homophobic. He just himself is not gay, and gets it a lot.
Love the songs :)
Anonymous, I started getting that vibe. I think the Blender quote was mis-represented. He really doesn't seem homophobic.
And the songs are pretty fab!
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