Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Not only did the band sound like a few of my kind of people, (because, honestly, I have a platinum membership to Procrastinators Anonymous and flash the thing like a pro), but as soon as the first minute of the first track passed, I knew they were my kind of music, too.  This is the band’s first album since 2002, and while it’s somewhat of a wait between albums, if 11i is any indication of what they’re capable of, any Supreme Beings fan will tell you it was worth the wait if this is the end product. 

The album opens with a track called The Light, a very sexy, electronica-meets-symphony track with absolutely brilliant lyrics.  “My mother’s voice spills out of me like vinegar” is my favorite line from the track, and deservedly so: packing that much meaning and familiarity into nine words is no small feat.

Geri Soriano-Lightwood’s voice is the perfect compliment for the music, very smooth, very sultry.  You will wish you could move like you’d need to for a samba or a mambo.  Or you’ll try in front of the mirror, and realize it’s best left to thinking  you can dance on par with the way the music demands.

As their myspace page (www.myspace.com/supremebeingsofleisure) states, their music really is “Sexy sounds for sexy people”, and is very tongue-in-cheek at times.  In their track “Good”, you can’t help but smile as Soriano-Lightwood repeats the line “I’ll be good, tomorrow”, because you know as well as she does, tomorrow really never comes.

The third track, Mirror breaks the tension the first and second tracks build up, allowing for a faster-paced song.  This is the type of album that not only creates tension with the music and the lyrics, but in the way it engages you: you will want to listen to the rest of the album immediately, but find yourself not wanting to change a track halfway through. 

There is something very meditative about the album as a whole.  You’ll listen once, and then play it again, and then again, and every time you’ll catch a bit more of the lyrics, more of the meaning, and I can appreciate that. The best bands have made you think about what they’re saying with their music, whether their message is about society, religion, love, death or some kind of self-revelation.  Supreme Beings of Leisure is one such band.  And seeming to be very conscious of this fact, Soriano-Lightwood makes the remark on their page that “Musicians are like modern-day shamans and for some of us, music is the only church we’ve got.”  Amen.