Critiques on Adam Levin

 

selected Critiques on Adam Levin's music

"...a songwriter of exceptional talent and perception. I expect him to make a serious impact on the pop charts or on Broadway..."

      – Charles M. Young, Executive Editor
         Musician Magazine

"Truly enjoyable....a serious musical talent... music has the same haunting intrigue [as] Todd Rundgren’s..."

      – Alan Schlein, Journalist
         Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine

"His music has the rare ability to appeal to not only musicians seeking cerebral stimulation, but also innocent ears in search of a beautiful, memorable melody."

      – Tricia Tahara, Vocalist/Songwriter
         Savant (Highnote) Jazz Recording Artist

"His piano playing has a great touch."

      – Wallace Roney, Trumpeter/Producer
         Grammy Award-winning Jazz Recording Artist

"...elegant....heartfelt....rich and beautiful."

      – Nikki Squire, Vocalist/Songwriter
         Pop Recording Artist 

 

 		 

"...a uniquely gifted composer. His songs are  powerful, perceptive, even provocative....a sensitive and intelligent performer. This is music everyone should hear."

     – Mike Stoller, Songwriter/Producer
        Leiber & Stoller
        Smokey Joe’s Café, etc.

"...articulate, clear-thinking... with something to say....the U2-school-of-conviction....songs with sincerity..."

      – The Music Paper

"...a sophisticated and contemporary writer – hear him!"

       – Kirk Nurock, Composer/Pianist
          Koch Jazz/Classical Recording Artist

"Sophisticated"

       – Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Librettists
          Singin’ in the Rain, On the Town, etc.

"Ambitious"

       – Gary Katz, Producer
          Steely Dan
 

"...intriguing....delightfully playful....deft musical collage....not letting the listener's attention wander for a single moment....dramatic and atmospheric by turns....enormously expressive performance....perfect for the piano."
 
– Alan Kinsman, Musicologist
 
"...a musical treasure.  In a world rife with tastelessness, his recordings feature style, class, passion, and extraordinary melodies, an increasingly rare phenomenon....adorable, tender and moving....sweetly ironic and finely melodic, nice arrangements and pleasant vocals – everything was just right....a sincere joy to hear a true talent like that....a language that speaks to every heart.... There's some sweet sincerity about it that just makes you want to listen to it again and again... It has a spark of life that lights up the finest human emotions in one's heart – and what can be better than this?"
 
– On-Reflection
 
"While other, normal songwriters are content to provide you with polite background music for your daily activities, Adam Levin writes songs that frequently warrant your full, rapt attention. Each time I hear him play one of his pieces – new or old – I reflexively smile and shake my head in amazement at just how good he is. If I could pin it down to only one thing....but, of course, I can’t. It’s easiest to start with a laundry list of the technical stuff: his encyclopedic harmonic vocabulary, his deftness with the most complex rhythmic and metric patterns, his ambitious but solid sense of structure, his smart and sensitive handling of the grandest issues and smallest details of the human condition, his stunningly beautiful and well-constructed melodies, and the way he performs it all with an acrobat’s balance of drama and subtlety. But what’s most impressive to me is the seemingly effortless manner in which he ties all these elements and more – across an impressively wide stylistic range – into one organic whole, bearing his unique and unmistakable stamp on every bar."


– Peter Stoller, Songwriter/Producer

 
 

Background music: excerpt from ver bal o sis (et al. compilation CD)