Ian Axel: "This is the New Year"

Bathed in top notch piano, catchy vocals and humor, singer-song writer Ian Axel spanks the new year into existence with This is the New Year. It's a delicious romp full of great pop music craft. Ian sprinkles his ever present keyboards with orchestral flourishes and drums that add just the right texture. Layered vocal harmonies are used sparely with good effect. The production is not over blown, with arrangements and polish that add just the right touch. Nothing seems excessive. Lyrically, Ian dances around a host mostly relationship based subjects including telling a would be lover to take a hike, "Hangman", love lost that won't go away, "Leave Me Alone!" and of course infatuation "Girl I Got a Thing."

There are a lot of truly delightful tracks here. "Afterglow" represents masterful pop song craft with one of the best choruses I've heard in some time. "Girl I Got A Thing" has a pounding march-step delivery that will have your toe tapping in no time at all. All of these tracks have melodies that will ring in your head and trigger the sing-along mechanism. Seriously, you won't have a choice. "Waltz" has an almost Gypsy feel to it with a rapid one-two-three beat. "This is the New Year" features guest vocal Chad Vaccarino and talks of making resolutions-and keeping them.

More than anything, This is the New Year provides a positive, up-beat and optimistic tone to the months ahead.  Coming off a year that has been clouded with economic woes and political battles, real optimism is a very good thing!  There is a great deal of time left in 2010, but this musical offering could well be the best of the year-it's just that good.

Released only in digital format so far, you can find This is the New Year on Amie Street, Amazon and i-Tunes among other sources. You can listen to some complete tracks from Ian Axel on his My Space Page as well as videos from his YouTube Channel. When Ian releases the CD version, I'll try to post it here.