Colin Munroe :: "Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero"

Someone’s got to be pretty brave, putting out a statement like that. How does one claim oneself an unsung hero without getting slapped with the “BOOJIE” label? But do I agree? Well, I don’t know yet. Let’s get through this review and find out!

Colin Munroe started off writing and producing tracks here and there up north where he’s from: Canada (Yay! Another Canadian artist!). I must admit that I am a fan of Kanye West so I credit my discovery of Munroe to him. While perusing through West’s blog, I stumbled upon a version of West’s “Flashing Lights” (off of his album Graduation) created by Munroe. At first, I wasn’t a fan. I didn’t like the way Munroe’s light and airy voice went with West’s beats. I quickly changed my mind when I heard Munroe’s cover of my all time favorite U2 song: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Sure, Munroe’s version lacks the power and emotion of the original, but you have to admit it’s a pretty interesting take on the song remembering the Bloody Sunday Massacre (which, if you aren’t familiar with it, I strongly suggest you look it up. It’s very powerful).

“I Want Those Flashing Lights”

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” by Colin Munroe. I frakking HATE when they disable embedding!

Soon after the release of these two songs, Munroe released his free online mixtape: “Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero.”

The album starts out great. I absolutely love the first track, “The Unsung Hero.” Munroe creatively mixes in samples of rappers (from Snoop to Kanye to Lupe Fiasco to Pharrell) in such a way that pretty much tells the listeners: “I’m Colin Munroe and I’m the shit.” Colin Munroe thinks he’s awesome; and you know what? I agree.

“Piano Lessons” features Joell Ortiz and is not the greatest song on the album but it pretty much tells the story about how Munroe picked up his musical skills. It tells that age-old story of when a kid is forced to learn to play something (whether that be sports or an instrument) and they just get burned out to the point where they want nothing to do with it. The beat and piano melody is pretty chill but it is just a weak song compared to the rest of the album.

But not to worry, the third track picks things up. “Will I Stay” is my favorite song on this mixtape! The beat, the altered voices, the guitar melody and the flowy chorus are all so greatly put together that it makes this song the shit! The WHOOAAAOOOs are so perfectly placed and the song is the perfect jam to blast in my ’62 Caddy convertible on my cruise down the coast (a girl can dream, can’t she?). But not only does the song sound great, but I love the subject matter just as much. It touches on those times when you find yourself in such a situation (it can be anything, but Munroe is singing about a relationship) that isn’t always the greatest. Is it worth it to stay in that situation? That’s the question Munroe asks. My favorite line is of the entire album is in this song featuring Wale and Dallas Austin : “She don’t really want me and I feel the same/A loveless relationship, but we scared to say/In this game we play it’s a lot like Spades/A heart means nothing if two jokers in the way.” I absolutely love this song so much and the next song can be thought of as a sort of a continuation of this one …

“One More Chance” is also a light-hearted, cute-sounding song. Think about “Will I Stay” … Say you decide to NOT stay. Well, when you realize you made a horrible mistake, you’re singing “One More Chance.” This song features Mickey Factz and also has an incredibly catchy chorus: “Give me one more chance/You know I’ll let ya/You know I love ya.” The placement of the song is just funny because it’s right after the song where he’s questioning whether or not he wants to be in this particular relationship. After you make your decision to leave, you have to apologize when you come crawling back, right? Well, that’s “One More Chance” for ya! It’s a super cute make-up song that is sure to make your other half smile because it’s almost like Munroe is saying, “Just kidding about that whole ‘I’m leaving’ thing!”

Since Colin Munroe is a singer who incorporates rappers into much of his stuff, he runs the risk of not merging everything together successfully. I personally think that the rappers on “Cannon Ball” (featuring Drake, Lil Wayne’s up-and-comer prodigy) and “Brick in the Wall” (featuring Skyzoo) killed the tracks that Munroe created. And I don’t mean that in a good way. “Brick in the Wall” has a really great chorus that has the potential to make the song great, but Skyzoo’s voice all up in the mix just doesn’t do it for me. Drake in “Cannon Ball” is just so cocky and full of himself (when he doesn’t even have any reason to be) that it kind of killed the song for me.

A really interesting track is “Who Killed Davey Moore (Bob Dylan REVOX)?” Munroe mostly adds airy backing vocals to Dylan’s nasally voice.

Other highlights are “Fever” and “Last Cause” so be sure to download this great FREE mixtape and give the songs a listen.

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