Lenna's 1-st solo album "Lenna"

[suurprobleem]

So what do you think about this album...

My thoughts..

First part is from here - http://www.vnmusicboard.de/showthread.php?t=325

Second part is from - http://www.love-ninjas.com/news.php?...=&start_from=&

1. As i now listened all of those songs from her cd, i should say that FOR ME it is ordinary Vaiko Eplik's record...
Maybe even not ordinary, maybe a little worse, than his own cds

I like first 4 songs and 5-th song is also almost ok, but after that all other ones are lower than average pop songs, what i would call filling of the album. For me is also the fact, that all songs are made by Vaiko Eplik, not acceptable! As Vaiko said in interview @ Terevisioon, he wanted to take a responsibility to whole album to himself, not to share it someone. This says 2 things. First - he wants all the money he can get from this album, second - he is too arrogant to share his songs with others and thinks too good about himself
Anyway. This album can be worse, of course, but it can be certainly much better, as well!

2. And.. Even some other people are involved to making the album, mainly he (Vaiko) made it for himself, or maybe a little to Lenna, as well.. Not for public, not for people, who wanna buy it. Sorry, but pop music is for selling, not for making song for your own enjoy
Yes, it is good, if you can make music, what you like and others like, but if you make album only for yourself, than in my point of you, you can make some cds to your friends and to yourself, not try to sell them.
One more time. Yes i understand Lenna's need to make music she loves, we all wanna listen music we like etc. But... In that case you have to sing it well. In my opinion Lenna's jazz singing isn't still perfect! Yes she can sing in lots of different music genres, of course. But not in improvisational jazz music. Because this music needs really good voice work, it is mostly playing with voice. Lenna sings really good, but for jazz, maybe she can't play enough with her voice, can't bring out her voice's all colors ..
And some of those last songs in that album certainly needed this play with voice
Anyway, as always, it's my personal point of view to all.. So one more time, it isn't critics or something. Simply one opinion from thousands..

[believer]

so i don't really know anything about "vaiko eplik", who not seems to be very liked by all the people here, who know him. and i don't know if these accusations are qualified, because i don't know the music he did before and if he only makes the music for himself. but anyway i think what we should talk about is the album and not this guy.
so...
i really like the song next to the last of the composition on http://www.love-ninjas.com. also the first one of them is good.
the others i have to listen to more often and then i'm really sure that i'll like them!!

and finally i want to say: it's not very important if vaiko eplik has any bad intentions or makes bad music. the only things that are important are that we (the fans) like the music and if we don't then it's okay. because noone can hustle us to like it. and also that lenna has found her way to make the music she likes because otherwise she wouldn't have made it, i think.

[suurprobleem]

Yes, we all can have our own opinion and we all can say it out loud. Of course, no insulting etc. But we all can say, what we think.

About those last songs in Lenna's album. I just listened them again, and i should say, that those last songs are strange ones.. In Estonian i would call it - "Tõeline sürr" It means something like - "Really surreal"
Why? I even can't say, that those songs are pure jazz, they are something between, jazz, pop and rock... Really strange. Why? Because Lenna's voice is too beautiful to use it in this crap Sorry.. (Only my opinion!)

PS. And to be correct first 4 songs are good, next 2 are OK and 4 last ones i don't like at all!

[Annomalia]

Zitat von suurprobleem

I even can't say, that those songs are pure jazz, they are something between, jazz, pop and rock... Really strange. Why? Because Lenna's voice is too beautiful to use it in this crap Sorry.. (Only my opinion!)

PS. And to be correct first 4 songs are good, next 2 are OK and 4 last ones i don't like at all!

My thoughts exactly Indeed there are some good songs in Lenna's album. But the others are... hm... a pure waste of her voice Sorry, but it's true I wouldn't call it a "bad" album because as I said there are some good songs in it. I would call it "average" because I don't see any big hits and I don't think it's anything special.

After I heard Rapunzel and some other Vaiko Eplik's songs I had an idea what would Lenna's album be so I didn't have big expectations. Many of the melodies sound very naive or even childish to me. Vaiko has used some retro keyboards and effects that remind me of the 70s. But if they wanted to sound retro then wouldn't ABBA's style fit better to Lenna's voice than this?

Anyway, I don't believe the album would be very successful and I don't think that many VN fans would like it because it is too far away from Ninja style. For me, it is the needed mistake that Lenna had to do so she could get down on the ground It seems the Ninjas still can't find themselves and they still don't know what is best for their music. So they will have to do some mistakes and false experiments to find it out Maybe after that they will realize how important the band is and they will be more motivated to come back

Generally, the biggest problem of Lenna and Piret is that they can write good lyrics but when it comes to composing... well... they aren't capable of writing an entire album by themselves. And this problem is getting bigger and bigger with time. Because every singer needs a constant flow of good songs to maintain his glory. So the Ninjas have to cooperate with other composers and producers. Some of these cooperations are successful. Others (like the current one) - not so much

[believer]

Zitat von Annomalia

Anyway, I don't believe the album would be very successful and I don't think that many VN fans would like it because it is too far away from Ninja style. For me, it is the needed mistake that Lenna had to do so she could get down on the ground It seems the Ninjas still can't find themselves and they still don't know what is best for their music. So they will have to do some mistakes and false experiments to find it out Maybe after that they will realize how important the band is and they will be more motivated to come back

i think that's exactly what lenna wanted to do with this project. not to be like ninja-style.
i mean it's logical. if she wanted to do something in ninja-style then she could have done it with vanilla ninja.
and she's not getting down on the ground! why? only because she's doing something else but rocky music?
it's just another genre from which (like i think) we here may not have such a big experience. sorry if you are a big jazz-expert, then you can say this, but i don't think that you are... so we can't judge it so good.
and maybe you're right with what you're saying. because maybe it's true that the girls have to make some experiments and projects and maybe mistakes (if it's really a mistake to try something new) to come back to their roots - to vn.
and we don't know exactly what lennas intentions with this album were, so maybe she didn't even want to bring this album up to us, but maybe she did it for another group of fans or something. we couldn't know.

edit: and to me the last songs are not jazzy at all. they're more folk-songs. especially the very last one.

[suurprobleem]

Strange...
I wrote a message, but it's gone now!!???

Anyway. What i wrote was, that i'm not a jazz expert. But i write, what i think...
And, if you can hear in the last song music instrument, what sounds like in folk songs, it doesn't mean that song is folk song..

Maybe it was this "lazy way of singing", or this music what is made with pots and pans in 4 last songs, why those songs seemed to me jazzy.. Who knows. But certainly those last songs are strange ones! That's for sure.

So, who wants to listen this album and say something about it... Let me know

[MaxVnFan]

I listened to the samples of the album, and of course it's just a first impression, but I think this sounds like a typical "Indie"-Sound-Album, it totally reminds me of the German band "Wir sind Helden"

I like the overall sound, of course it's different to Ninjas Sound, but this was clear, as Lenna could make Ninjas Sound Songs with Ninjas^^ The only thing I would criticize (I can't spell that word^^) is that Lenna doesn't seem to use the whole range of her voice, I just love it when she gives full power in high notes as in "Pray" or "Silence" but that's typical for the Indie-Sound too.

Now I'm excited to get the whole album, which should arrive soon

[Abo]

Zitat von MaxVnFan

I listened to the samples of the album, and of course it's just a first impression, but I think this sounds like a typical "Indie"-Sound-Album, it totally reminds me of the German band "Wir sind Helden"

I like the overall sound, of course it's different to Ninjas Sound, but this was clear, as Lenna could make Ninjas Sound Songs with Ninjas^^ The only thing I would criticize (I can't spell that word^^) is that Lenna doesn't seem to use the whole range of her voice, I just love it when she gives full power in high notes as in "Pray" or "Silence" but that's typical for the Indie-Sound too.

Now I'm excited to get the whole album, which should arrive soon

I wanted to write the same about her voice She doesn't use her whole power or it's better to say the whole spectrum of her voice.
To be honest I don't like her Album....except from some passages in several songs, nearly every song sounds similar to the other ones and in addition to that fact I don't like that music genre. I miss the distortion guitar sound and those songs like Silence or Pray

I wish her all the best with that album and I guess that the Estonians will like it - it fits to their musical taste.

[LoveIsLenna]

I've had the album about 3 weeks now and listened to it a few times. About 20 times. :P

On initial listenings, it's somewhat a deflating experience after being accustomed to the soaring vocals of Lenna with VN. An album like LIW, that was a vocal tour de force. This album, the mix isn't there. It's made worse if you listen on an MP3 player as I first did, because the compression of an MP3 file causes the heavy guitar to leave a nasty residual effect on Lenna's voice, almost a metallic voice. On track 8, my favourite song of the album, I could not even listen towards the end. Putting the CD through an actual CD player made a world of difference. From there it could also be appreciated the softer side of Lenna's voice.

The songs are all quite ok. Favourites are 1, 4, 7, 8 & 9. The least liked would be 6. Sound-wise, it feels like a mix of indie-rock and 60s beach vibe. It's something I imagine playing after a day hitting the surf. Overall it presents as a nice, pleasant album. It's almost exactly as expected, maybe a little better.

Lenna's next step really needs to showcase her voice more. Could it be the Estonian language or style doesn't lend itself to more? It's a pleasant sounding language and Lenna's phrasing sounded really nice. Maybe an album of covers of classic rock songs. I know one or two from Queen or Kiss that I'd love her to try.