Forgotten Artists: Eagle Eye Cherry

Save Tonight: A perfect song about having to leave a loved one. One of the best songs of the late 90's, but still, it was the only big international hit Eagle Eye Cherry had. Who is he, what happened with him, and what is he doing  nowadays?

Eagle Eye Cherry is the Swedish-American son of the jazz artist Don Cherry and half-sister of Neneh Cherry. But those aren't the only musicians in the family: Don Cherry (jazz artist), Titiyo Jah (commonly known as Titiyo; a successful Swedish singer), and Marlon Roudette (a half of the duo Mattafix; which landed a huge hit with their single Big City Life) all are close relatives of him. His first album Desireless went platinum in the USA (1.000.000 units sold or more) and sold 4.000.000 units in the whole world. The song standing out clearly was Save Tonight.

Other great songs were Desireless, which featured a great tune and the best trumpets I heard in a song composed by American-Swedish boy (actually the only one, but still awesome trumpets). No surprise that the jazz elements of the song are so wonderful, since his father is Don Cherry. The third great song was  Falling In Love Again, although Falling In Love sounds like a bunch of rejected verses originally written for Save Tonight. Don't get me wrong, the song is beautiful, but it's only problem is that it is only one of the three superb tracks on the album. The other songs are not bad, but aren't real catchy, aren't real plastic, or aren't real interesting. Sometimes, being mediocre is worse than being bad. The fourth song which could be mention is Indesicion.

After months of performances, promotion, and touring, he even contributed lead vocals in Santana's highly successful concept album Supernatural. But after that, it all went down. The fame suddenly was over, his sophomore album Living In The Present Future wasn't as critically acclaimed or as high-selling as its older brother Desireless, even though the album was produced by the titan Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys and so on). His first album was saved by three or four superb songs, but this album lacked of any superb. Like said, a typical Eagle Eye Cherry songs features following:

• A provocative, but lovable voice
• Songs about the boredom of everyday life, which, of course, are (almost) as boring
• Nice tunes, but no real catchy melody 
• Naive lyrics (which could be a pro and a contra)

And his next album, Subrosa, ugh..it was also mediocre...I enjoyed it, but it wasn't breathtaking. Let's hope his fourth album will be a better one. Here a quote from Eagle Eye Cherry's official website:

Although he is now something of a veteran writer and performer, the balance between inspiration and effort remains a source of wonder for Eagle-Eye Cherry. "You don't want to question too closely where it comes from," he concludes. "It's a fragile thing. I realized the day that I wrote ‘Save Tonight' I could just as easily have gone to the park to play football and the song would have been lost. It's like having butterflies flying around the room. Then the phone rings and they all disappear out of the window. At the same time, you can't take it too seriously. Don't get too intense. And remember: it's about making music, not about wearing shades and having a cool outfit."

Right said, Eagle Eye, right said...



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