There’s always one fucking douchebag with a guitar at a party, playing some soulful love songs in an attempt to moisten some girl’s panties. Raul Midon is one such individual. Having toured as a backup singer for musical “acts” like Shakira, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, Midon has stepped into the limelight with his latest release A World Within a World. While his album is musically competent, it comes off as a cloying attempt at cashing in on the R&B-flavoured, singer-songwriter shtick made famous by Ben Harper and Jason Mraz.
Musically, the album is a simple and proficient guitar-infused R&B album. It’s catchy, and serves to accentuate the smoothness of Midon’s voice. Unfortunately, lyrically, it’s the traditional love-song bullshit that’s been done to death. Not to say that the lyrics are stupid or horrible, it’s just that each song on the album has been done a million times before and each fits into a specific category of love song. “The More that I Know” is a song about missing a girl and wanting to be close to her. The song “All Because of You” is about discovering love with a woman after giving up on it. “Peace on Earth” is pretty self-evident.
This is the kind of music created and mass-marketed to the yuppie, yoga-pant-wearing set who sip their lattes and listen to the latest bland and inoffensive Starbucks mix CD. If you find yourself listening to Jason Mraz or Ben Harper, A World Within a World will be right up your alley. Otherwise, you can find the same type of music played by some curly-haired loser at some greasy open mic night.