Mutlu Onaral known as simply Mutlu has a new album out, his third, titled Livin’ It. Having absolutely no familiarity with this artist gave me the element of surprise right from the start.
Livin’ It is a good album. It has a lot of highlights and tracks that have that rhythm and soul vibe going on, sort of like a Marvin Gaye thing. Nearly every track seems radio ready. He does the Santana guest artist thing and that decision was his most important on this recording because it takes rather generic songs and makes them something else more interesting and provoking.
The title track is killer, I love it, anyone with a sense of rhythm and soul would. The artist is right on the ball with awareness in marketing himself, he is offering the track for a free download, which is a perfect teaser to buy the album. You will get much of the same with the rest of the album but as I said, the extra bonus is the other contributing artists such as Darryl Hall, G. Love, who really spices up “Shaky Ground,” easily the best track on the recording, Amos Lee, and Raheem DeVaughn.
Mutlu has a pleasing and warm vocal style that is hard not to like and he plays some decent acoustic guitar as well. I listened to this CD a few times and have to admit as much as I think it uses the same formula and sound throughout…I found it all very catchy and I did enjoy it.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-July 24, 2008
