Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #808 in Digital Music Track
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Running time: 214 seconds

Customer Reviews

Breath of Musical Life
Israeli-French singer Yael Naim is a relative newcomer to the music scene. She got her big break with this song,"New Soul" through the Mac Book ad. The excerpt all about "learning to give and take" struck me as slightly sappy,especially the "I'm a new soul",and the vocals struck me as breathy. However,any music lover should know that first impressions aren't everything.

"New Soul" is a spiritual&uplifting song. It's about embracing life&being willing to make mistakes. "New Soul" is inspirational. It's a refreshing change from the current trends in music (hip-hop as well as the prefab pop of High School Musical) Yael Naim is a promising new talent. With its mixture of klezmer,folk rock&trip-hop,"New Soul" breathes new life into current pop.

a beautiful and refreshing debut from Yael Naim.....
The beautiful and talented Yael Naim was born of Tunisian/Sephardi-Jewish heritage in Paris. This lovely woman's vocals are reminiscent, for me, of a luscious and warm ray of sun, shooting through an overcast sky. Her delicately accented English only adds to the charm of "New Soul" (best known as "The Mac Song" for the new Air model of laptop, marketed as one of the skinniest laptops ever--so slender that it can fit in a large manila envelope!). This tune is as much a throwback, for me, to another time (maybe 1970s folk/pop?) as it is appealing on a contemporary level. I could see Cat Stevens joining in with her on the infectious chorus, as well as the prolific and original Regina Spektor, accenting the verses with her unique brand of quirkiness. Naim truly transcends time, place, and ethnicity and makes us want to learn more about this "new soul" who has made "every possible mistake," because, truly, what could this woman ever do besides make us love her all the more?

A Song That Grows As A Novelty
First off, I gave this song 4-stars because nobody else has yet done so. But anyways, when I first heard this song in full, I wasn't impressed, and the MacBook commercial seemed to get the best part of the song. I mean the song was original, different, and a throwback to who knows when, but it just wasn't that impressive. Well, I am now sad to say, my opinion hasn't changed much, however this is the type of song that grows on you. So at first you may hate it, then you'll think it's OK, then you'll like it, then you might love it.

The song has a real novel quality, in that it's a novelty. It's not going to win Grammy's, but it's fun. I really started loving it when me and my family found ourselves singing along with the 'la la la la' part. However, the song is great for the first two minutes or so, then it starts falling apart, going off in weird and strange directions. So like most Peter Jackson movies, this song needed to go back to the editing room. Sure 2-minutes isn't very long, but when your peak is a MacBook commercial, you can shorten the song a bit.

So overall, you might love it, you might hate it. It's a strange and different song that may be far from perfect, but it has some very good elements to it. And that might just make the song worth buying...

Real Score: 3.5