Purple Haze Feed the Sound

The ACB will return to regular posting in January 2011. In the meantime, a review of a recent CD release:

Over the course of the group’s 15 year history, Northwestern University’s Purple Haze has made a name for itself through hard-hitting coed a cappella—diverse song selection, walls of sound, and soaring solos. 2010 was quite arguably the biggest year in the group’s history. It started with junior John Park arriving as a soulful finalist on American Idol. It continued when the group eked out a win in the ICCA Midwest Semifinals, earning their second trip to the finals in four years, and staking their claim as the group to beat in the Midwest. And then came the release of the ensemble’s seventh studio album Feed the sound.

There’s a great deal to like a about this album. The CD kicks off with an inviting rendition of Christina Aguilera’s “Come On Over”—a fun opener built upon the back of some tremendous solo work, and continues with ICCA finals favorite Anastacia’s “I’m Outta Love” with a fantastic solo all its own, and cleaner sound than the live showing, based on the track’s production. The group takes chances, ranging from bubble gum pop to indie-rock to hip hop in an eclectic mix that is going to have something for everyone.

“The Process,” a cover of an Imogen Heap and I Fight Dragons song, probably represents the pinnacle of the group’s work on this album. A neat simulation of synthesizer trills opens the track, and recurs throughout, highlighting some of what I like best about a cappella recording. You take a completely inorganic sound, translate it to the human voice, then layer effects on it such that it irons out the edges without diluting the fact that it is human beings making this sound. The end result? Something unique to the recorded a cappella medium, and a testament to this group’s abilities. Beyond the special effect, the song is aurally pleasing and it’s not one that has been done to death on the collegiate a cappella scene, which makes it sound fresh.

Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” is another winning track. I was wary of this song selection, considering its an aged song selection, and one that’s been covered dozens of times over. Nonetheless, the group executes the song to a tee with a fine solo, rich harmonies, and a very nice build up before they introduce the perc and up the tempo. Better yet, the group dares to take some liberties with the arrangement, mixing up the end with a haunting reiteration of “I lost myself” over the closing minute. This is a textbook example of how to make the most of a ballad—taking care of the fundamentals, altering it just enough to make it your own, and differentiating the sound throughout the piece enough to keep it interesting.

The penultimate track, John Legend’s “Coming Home” would have to be considered the signature track for this album. It was this John Park vehicle that set the stage on fire for Purple Haze’s ICCA run this spring. The group also made the unique decision to release as a single on their website ahead of the rest of the album. Last March, I went so far as to call this the best solo in collegiate a cappella. I’ve heard others call it bland, but Park’s control and rich tones make this simply stunning, and make it all the more impactful when the group builds to the big moments toward the end of the song. Great blend from the group, and this is truly a track for the purists, with minimal production effects in play. Emotional, powerful, wonderful song.

So a number of the individual tracks on this album really do click. The greatest weakness of this song is that the songs do not necessarily work well together. It’s a lot to ask for a collegiate group to pick just one style, much less to build anything resembling a concept album. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help walking away from this recording with the sense that Purple Haze did not have an identity. Talented musicians? Absolutely. Versatile? Sure. But coherent? Distinctive? Sadly, not so much.

The biggest culprit here is song selection. “The Process” is fresh and innovative. “Coming Home” is a chance for a masterful soloist to run wild. The group takes a new spin on “Fake Plastic Trees.” But “Come On Over,” Brian McKnight’s “Superhero,” and the “En Vogue Medley” that ends the compilation just sort of left me scratching my head—what year is this? On one hand, I don’t like it when a group dismisses a song simply because it wasn’t recorded in the last six months. On the other hand, a group needs to ask itself, “why are we choosing to bring this song back?” These weren’t bad recordings, but they also didn’t offer much of anything I hadn’t heard a half dozen times before.

Beyond anachronisms, the group suffers a bit of an identity crisis on songs like Ben Folds’ “You Don’t Know Me” and Alice Smith’s “Woodstock.” In both cases, the group settles for cutesy instrumentation, which really undersells their innate power. At its worst—such as is the case for the bridge on “You Don’t Know Me”—the sound is downright grating. Who on earth thought the random Muppet voices were a good choice here? I suppose such songs are marginally better than selections like “Polite Dance Song” that are, frankly, just boring. Nonetheless, the stronger 60 percent of this album makes the remaining portion all the more disappointing for what could have been.

All in all, this is a good album. The consistently good-to-great solos and the mostly non-intrusive production make it easy to listen to, distinctively a cappella, and, at times, quite moving. Unfortunately, the song selections are not all up to snuff, and the group doesn’t take itself seriously enough at points, which creates a ceiling for the CD’s potential. Nonetheless, it’s certainly worth a listen, and provides a nice snapshot of one of the country’s preeminent collegiate groups.