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Label: Domino Records

American born but British raised Devonte Hynes is a 23 year old musician extraordinaire who performs under the name Lightspeed Champion.  He can play the drums, guitar, double bass, piano, cello and synthesizer, and probably many other instruments we don’t know about.  Hynes was formerly a member of the Domino Records act Test Icicles, but when they went their separate ways in 2006, he stuck with the label.  In the two years that followed, he began touring and recording solo under the moniker of Lightspeed Champion.

Unfortunately, this extensive touring regime resulted in major throat problems that began to hinder his singing abilities.  After having surgery in December last year, Hynes couldn’t talk for weeks. His time was spent writing up his second album, Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You.  Completing work on the album in March, it can be best described as being a mixture of instrumentals, intermissions, electronics and just plain boringness.

The album kicks off the boredom at track one, “Dead Head Blues”. The steady beat of the drums gets repetitive and the timbre of the electronics doesn’t enhance the song whatsoever.  Worst of all however, the dull vocals maintain the same pitch, tone and volume throughout the track, a forewarning of things to come with the rest of the album.  Second track “Marlene” looks promising to begin with as it starts off as an upbeat dance tune, however instantly falls down through a lack of vocal timbre due to minimal backing vocals.

One song does manage to shine through the abyss of duds however.  “The Big Guns Of Highsmith” shows off Hynes’s piano skills, an instrument he has been playing for 18 years since he was just 7 years old.  The melodic backing vocals add a call and response element to the track which is definitely lacking elsewhere on the album.  A number of other songs are at least benefitted from the inclusion of his magnificent instrumentation, including “Etude Op.3”, “Goodnight Michalek”, “Intermission 1” and “Intermission 2”.

The best tracks on Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You are definitely the instrumentals, which showcase his true talents in his piano and drum playing.  These songs also save the listener from having to be exposed to his boring, atonal singing.  Could being holed up in his apartment, unable to speak while writing the album be the reason why the instrumental, rather than vocal tracks are much stronger?

On the whole, Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You does not quite manage to grab the attention of the listener.  Upon listening to the album in its entirety, the songs quite frankly seem to merge together and sound the same.

By Lillian Altman