‘Doreen Taylor “Toy” Review’
Upon first hearing the buzz on Facebook of Philadelphia area native, Doreen Taylor’s leap from the country music world to the mainstream contemporary pop music market, I kind of smiled to myself and thought “I knew it!”. I was lucky enough to catch Doreen live at her sold out concert at the TLA last year in support of her solo debut COUNTRY album “MAGIC” and I became an instant fan. Although in hindsight, I could tell sitting in that standing room only theater that this girl craved to make the leap to more mainstream music. Her retooled music (very different live versus the album) begged to be more pop than country and perhaps after the 2nd standing ovation of the night, we were unwittingly the guinea pigs for this upcoming change.
After hearing Doreen’s new single “TOY” for the first time, I am even more confident that it was the right decision. It quickly became clear that this girl has something special that sets her apart from a lot of mainstream musical artists. Her artistry and musical expressivity is a thing of beauty. I was even more amazed when I learned that she also wrote the song. The structure, although seemingly simplistic at first glance, is quite complicated and not typical of most popular mainstream artists. Her vocals are impeccable and again, not typical of the standard mainstream pop artist. She has a sound that is very unique and personally, I find it to be refreshing in contrast to other singers in the same genre. She has a depth of maturity and feeling to her voice that goes beyond the words and truly bites into the music. You don’t just hear what she is saying…you feel it.
The midtempo groove, which has been characterized as “sexy, sophisticated and smart”, is exactly that. The lyrics have a very creative, double entendre connotation with many lines deceptively leading the listener in other directions. Taylor creatively crafted the entire song around an acronym of TOY which broken out was “Thinking Of You”. Choosing the very sexy, jazzy background parts to echo the line was a brilliant touch of subtle, subliminal messaging. I find the whole tone of the song to be powerful, yet submissive.
Musical icon, and Philadelphia native, Larry Gold arranged Taylor’s new single “TOY” and it was recorded at Milkboy The Studio. Gold has worked with legends like Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Aretha Franklin and even, Michael Jackson and his arrangement on TOY rivals any of the aforementioned artists. It was really refreshing to hear real, live string parts on a pop song. In the day of electronic music and synth strings, it is unfortunately rare to hear real studio string musicians yet it was the cherry on the proverbial sundae.
Another reason why I have so much admiration for Doreen Taylor is because she gives back in so many ways. Taylor was honorably chosen to collaborate with the nation’s leading park advocacy organization, the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association(NPCA), on a song about national parks. I first got to meet her over a year ago when she was back in Philadelphia, singing her song, Colors of the USA. For more info, click here.
Get a chance, please check out her new album. The information is located below.
Toy is available to download at:
ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/toy-single/id1012535376
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bt55wjpvfmre2ltui2g3naohcaa
For more info visit: www.doreentaylormusic.com
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