Songs of the Day

So seeing as I'm a little behind this week, I'm gonna go ahead and do the first half (5 tracks) of the album: "Open," "The Fall," "Last Dance," "Verse," and "Shed Some Blood."
"Open" is a really wonderful way to start off Woman.  How could you not love a string opening like this?  And it's got a great build into the verse - it's hard to resist.  Milosh has such an interesting sound to his voice.  When my friend told me he sounded like Sade, I was slightly confused, but as soon as he starts singing, Sade is instantly what you think of (and that is meant in the most positive sense).  Even though he kind of sounds like a chick, it still works.  I love how smooth the groove is, and his voice sits so gently over the simple synth and guitar lines.  Great interjection of a couple horn lines, and bringing back the strings at the end.  A really simple, sweet tune that is easy to sit back and listen to.
Since the opening track was so soft, I'm glad things picked up a little bit on "The Fall" while retaining the same sweet feel as before.  The track layers nicely, starting with the piano, then the vocals, bass, drums, and finally strings (gotta love some good strings on a track).  The doubling on Milosh's voice works great with the groove as well - it beefs up his soft voice just enough.  Robin Hannibal (talk about an unfortunate last name) - the instrumentalist of this duo - did a great job of orchestrating all of these pieces together.  I was happy to hear a little bit of an instrumental section that was able to show off his composition skills.  And how can you resist a song that starts out with "make love to me" in a world that's saturated with songs about "fucking bitches?"  Another solid tune.
"Last Dance" keeps the the groove going, but in its own way, which I really enjoy.  It's got this funkier feel going on with the bass, guitar, and synth sound, and of course the horns (while I think they're programmed) add to that feel.  Something about Milosh's voice is so hypnotizing, like I'm listening to a lullaby - I can't get enough of it.  Dig dig dig.
We come back down a little bit with "Verse," but I'm all about it.  This groove, while having many elements, has a stripped down essence to it that I really like.  And again with these strings - so pretty! Love that Milosh has some bigger harmonies going on on this track, you know how I luh me some good harmonies.  Sheesh, this track is almost too relaxing.  The only complaint I have about Milosh's voice is that sometimes it's hard to understand what he's singing because he is so soft spoken.  I don't really care though, because everything else works so well.  Solid, once again.
"Shed Some Blood" gets back into the funkier feeling we had going on in "Last Dance," and I dig it.  I love how Robin and Milosh have managed to have this soft feel while retaining a funky feel. The guitar and bass grooves really hold this one down, which I am all about "Don't call me 'love' unless you mean it" - PREACH, HONEY!  These tracks are all really short, but the perfect kind of short, the easy kind of short.  So into all of it.