In Good Company, Lee Lessack.

The handsome, clean cut and lanky Lee Lesack, with the list of duets partners listed on the CD cover label. I can see many ladies buying this CD if they saw this.

I first heard "In Good Company" duets CD by Lee Lessack in a friend's place during one of my home visits. The first two times I heard this CD, I thought to my self,"what pretentious singing and somewhat exaggerated recording". However, I must say each time I heard this CD again, some of the songs started to grow on me. I eventually bought the CD some time last year, but never listened to it much.

With the PMC Fact 8 speakers in my system now, I've seem to be going back to listening vocal recordings that I've never quite enjoyed before, including this! The PMC has quite a way of presenting old vocal materials from a new angle. And it is from this new perspective, that this CD shines.

Lee Lessack has a very ol' fashion, if rather stiff style of crooning, and if Simon Cowell(of American Idol fame) were to be judge, he'd probably label Lee as cabaret performer. Some of the songs here also have a very uplifting mood feel to them. However, with repeated listening, some of the cover duets seemed tastefully arranged and stand out to connect with me on an emotional state of mind. Lee does actually have some interaction chemistry with a few of his fellow female and 2 of male duet partners, as demonstrated in my choice tracks below.

1) The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face(reminds me of the first time I saw my wifey's face!)
2) The Look Of Love(the ever popular!)
4) Never Saw Blue Like That Before
6) Bring Back Romance(makes me wanna grab my wifey for a slow dance, which we actually did once)
8) Summer Wine
9) Vincero Perdero
10) If You Go Away
14) The Rose(made popular by Amanda McBroom and she sings here too!)
15) Vincent(very inspiring guys duet)

However, I did find that Lee's version of Open Arms, once made popular by the A&R rock group Journey and later covered success fully by none other than Mariah Carey(before she went all self obsessive and left little to the male imagination), to be so, so wrong. I just could not agree with it, like I did the two earlier versions.

Well, to like 9 out of the 17 songs available isn't too bad actually. And I did felt the CD to be a little long winded. I guess Lee should have stopped at 11 tracks and cut out a few of the duds perhaps? But whose complaining about all those extra filler tracks anyway?

The recording quality is typical premium audiophile quality, with great clarity, excellent vocal and instrument separation if ultimately, a little dry. As ML would put it, there's some MSG added during mastering for easier mass accept ability.

This CD makes a great Birthday or Christmas gift if you know someone who is an audiophile, or perhaps just to reward or up lift one's mood.