Gary Barlow, one of Britain’s most significant and successful songwriters and record producers has stepped up to release his new record ‘Music Played By Humans (Deluxe)’, a beautiful amalgamation of nineteen tracks that brightly places his name on the top of the charts once again. The musician returns to hit the screen in 2020 with this latest project that is supposedly his first album in seven years since his last release in 2013 titled Since I Saw You Last. Recorded with a complete 80-piece orchestra, the album is an ode to the sounds that hold close to Gary’s childhood. The orchestral sound design, the big band music precisely captures the imagination of the artist and eventually turns into a mesmerizing collection of some original compositions. The album seamlessly and most stunningly blends a multitude of uplifting, eclectic sounds and styles to stitch it as one of the most celebrated albums of the year. The songs of the album touch sounds of various genres and have been finely crafted in collaboration with other musicians.
Stretching over a span of sixty-nine minutes, the album is the deluxe version and is lead with the Latin inspired single Elita that features Michael Buble and Colombian star Sebastian Yatra along with other collaborations with stars from around the world, including names such as James Corden, Chilly Gonzales, Barry Manilow, Alisha Dixon, and others. Here’s a brief introduction to the songs:
- Who’s Driving This Thing
The track starts with quite a surprise when you first hear some instruments and musicians warm up as Gary Barlow introduces the album like a speaker. Following his introduction, the song becomes quite powerful and swings into its full potential with a big touch of rock n roll.
- Incredible
Focused on Gary’s personal style, this song also comes equipped with bug band sounds and flows with a lot of speed, guided by incredible tempo, and sounds like a happy track overall.
- Elita
As mentioned previously, the track is recorded with Sebastian Yatra and Michael Buble, it has a lovely Latin American touch and spreads a lot of happy and bright essence.
- The Big Bass Drum
Similar to the title, the song has a big band sound and sounds heavily energetic. It catches up with the listeners urging them to smile as Gary Barlow can be clearly seen reflecting his infectious energy.
- This Is My Time
Taking on the piano from this one, Barlow plays with some other instruments as well and the result is an impressive ballad.
- Enough Is Enough
The guest for this track is British artist Beverly Knight and the song comes gushing with terrific R^&b melodies and also with the sound of some fantastic classic instrumentals. The overall energy and essence of the sound are very much traditional but also at par with the modern soundscape.
- Bad Libran
Quite an interesting turn, this song turns out to be entertaining and quite easy to catch up with. The whole sound design guides the audience through a world of astrology and is based on quite an indulgent subject, astrology.
- Eleven
The song features a French Lebanese musician named Ibrahim Maalouf who has bestowed upon the song his gorgeous rhythmic pop-funk, which definitely makes the song a must-listen.
- Before We Get Too Old
Featuring Avishai Cohen, the Israeli jazz bass player, the song doesn’t necessarily circulate around the lyrics and can be themed under a nice, catchy Christmas song, excluding the Santa touch.
- Supernatural
This song happens to be the best as it clearly highlights the gifted abilities of Barlow as he nicely uses the orchestra, the rhythms, and the lyrics to create an overall nice, up-tempo, upbeat, and powerful track that sounds catchy from start to finish.
- Oh What A Day
Featuring Chilly Gonzales, a Canadian jazz piano player, the song is musically very impressive and the feat. Artist has surely added a lot of flavor and character to the track with his gorgeous piano play.
- What Leaving’s All About
The next musician to get featured is Alesha Dixon, a British pop music artist who has given the sound a very modern feel. Surprisingly this particular has very little amount of traditional big band sound attached to it that makes it even more remarkable.
- The Kind of Friend I Need
Featuring James Corden, the track is once again backing with the big band sound as the song necessarily focuses on friendships making it an overall good one.
- I Didn’t See That Coming
This particular track takes a different approach and has an intimate and retrospective piano sound flowing through that takes back into everything that has happened in life, something which no one saw through coming. However, given the intensifying subject, the song doesn’t necessarily create an atmosphere as such.
- Let’s Get Drunk
This song has quite a pop-kind of essence attached to it. It is rare to find a likable dance number that allows dancing freely to its beats, but this one is a good one with a catching dance vibe.
- The Day The World Stopped Turning
A breakup song, but unlike other ones this one is actually good and sounds much stronger at the start. Moving forward the melodic part created by the full orchestra sounds particularly nice.
- You Make The Sun Shine
Featuring Barry Manilow the song has a very unusual tempo, something that is rather unheard these days. The song is good but fails to leave its mark amidst the other ones.
- Incredible (Acoustic)
This song is a must-hear who would like to indulge in some good alcoholic or drunk party tune and the acoustic version has a nice touch to it.
- Incredible ( F9 Charleston Remix)
This song has been done by Barlow in a Charleston style and attitude. Overall an interesting melody line where the artist has finally included some hip-hop elements.
As it stands, ‘Music Played By Humans (Deluxe)’ is a definite listen as Gary has brought in several professionals gears in the firm of his celebrity friends and other much capable musicians to create this one.
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Album Link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3hJ53zBqiZbocDKlB3NXxt
Alicia Parker is a fashion enthusiast studying at the University of California. She contributes to Daily Music Roll as a music blogger and writes a review of various music on a daily basis
