‘Makai’
Justin Young
(Blind Man Sound/Koops2)
An "overnight success" is almost always many years in the making.
Not to jinx it, but Justin Young’s career trajectory, from the release of his debut album, "No Better Time Than Now," in 1996 to his latest effort, "Makai," is a perfect example. "Makai," funded through a Kickstarter campaign and released this month, could easily make Young, 34, a national hit-maker "overnight" — which in this case is 17 years.
Back in 1996 it was evident that Young was a new artist to watch and a star in the making for the record label Neos Productions. Six of the 10 songs on the album were originals that were far more interesting than its two pop-chart remakes. A pair of classic Hawaiian songs showed that his repertoire included more than Top 40 pop songs and imitation-Jamaican material.
Young worked steadily and paid his dues in the years that followed. He recorded several more albums for Neos, learned the ins and outs of studio production and became an artist other producers called on to add commercial appeal to their projects. For instance, when local radio station KIKI released its "Brown Bags 2000" compilation album, Young — known at the time simply as Justin — was a guest on three songs.
Young could have ridden the pop/Jawaiian-lite market here indefinitely and enjoyed life as a provincial star. What he did instead was let his partnership with Neos expire, hook up with other producers and record labels, and go to the mainland where he had to start over as an unknown. The positive results of Young’s calculated gamble were seen in 2003 when he returned home with the long-awaited album "One Foot on Sand." He returned again in 2007 with a collection of soft-pop originals titled "All Attached."
Now, with the mainstream acoustic pop originals on "Makai," he takes another big step forward.
Young opens the album with "Hana Hou," a hapa-haole slice of his biography set to a Jamaican-style rhythm perfect for Hawaii’s self-styled "island music" radio stations. Longtime fans will hear the phrase "pupule love" and recall one of his early hits. Young also appeals to the hometown "kanakafarian" audience by using bits of faux-rasta verbiage amid the political commentary of a song titled "Win the War."
With those exceptions Young is clearly aiming for a wider, cosmopolitan audience and the national pop charts. Take a song titled "Amnesia," for example, with its articulate romantic lyrics, acoustic arrangement, sophisticated percussion tracks and Young’s gentle delivery. Forgetting the past has never seemed more romantic.
Young maintains the same level of commercial professionalism in the songs that follow. Whether sliding into a laid-back acoustic soul sound ("Until Tomorrow") or crooning sweeter than sugar ("My Favorite"), Young reaffirms his credentials as a versatile contemporary singer-musician-songwriter.
His lyric description of a troubled relationship in "Puzzle Pieces," sung as a duet with acoustic pop star Colbie Caillat, with whom Young has toured (and romanced), is poignant, vivid and imaginative. A remix of "Puzzle Pieces," sung without Caillat, shows he can handle somewhat upbeat material as well as softer tunes.
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"Hana Hou"
