Album Review: Open

Louis Baker’s newest album Open is a lush, sonorous collection of immaculately assembled tracks.

Baker’s voice is lovely – it’s clear, poised, and in perfect pitch throughout. If you’re after a sensuous experience turn this music up and listen to it with headphones on, and let the sound wash over you. It’s truly music to fall in love with and to.

The songs themselves are reasonably diverse. Some are languid, such as the title track Open which ends the album, others, such as the soulful Silver Scroll-nominated Black Crow have a funky, rumbling groove, reminiscent of Fat Freddy’s Drop.

Baker’s vocals in Just A Memory reminded me strongly of Sam Smith. The quality of Baker’s singing just as good and the track features some lovely work on keys.

My favourite tracks were the opener, The People with its fantastic message and its slick, pop production. It’s a really catchy track, and let’s face it we all need to take the song’s central message on and run with it; “We are the people, we have a choice. We are the problem. We are the solution. We are the people. We have a voice. I want to make a change starting today.”

I also loved Alive – again with a powerful message of being awake and conscious and not letting the years pass you by.

Open is a very well crafted, high-quality body of work. Baker will be touring the album around Aotearoa/New Zealand in August – it’ll be well worth catching a gig to hear this material live.