“I Am”
Keilana
Keilana Music
Letting go of a dead-end romantic relationship can be surprisingly difficult even with the knowledge that letting go is the right thing to do. Singer-
songwriter Keilana Mokulehua went through the process not once, but twice. She shares her experience and the lessons learned with the 11 songs on her debut album. Listen to them in proper order with the liner notes in hand, and pieces all fall neatly into place.
The story follows a familiar trajectory. She meets her love on a romantic summer night. Everything is perfect — until it isn’t. She realizes that the relationship doesn’t have what she needs but finds it impossible to let it go, especially since she’s already invested so much of her time in trying to make it work. She’s the prisoner of her own emotions even though she holds the key.
Spoiler alert! With the final two songs Keilana describes successfully letting go of her toxic relationships, and the realization of her value as an individual: “I am a masterpiece constantly evolving, I am ever changing. I don’t need your validation. … There’s no stopping me.”
Keilana shares her experiences in a languid, modern urban/pop style that could come from anywhere in the country, but her lyrics set her apart from the small army of young women with the same musical template. “I Am” deserves a national audience.
Go to keilanamusic.com.
“Poisoned Love”
Storm
Tin Idol Productions
Three-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winners Storm (metal album 2018, 2019, 2020) are putting in their bid for a four-peat. Sandy Essman is the voice. Gerard K. Gonsalves (drums), Ryan Imata (guitars) and Darren Soliven (bass) are the musicians;
Gonsalves and Imata double on keyboards as needed.
The quartet goes cross-cultural on their opener, “Inner Samurai,” and
celebrate the life of Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi and the “esoteric teachings” contained in “The Book of Five Rings.” It is the
almost certainly the first time that
Miyamoto has been mentioned in
Hawaii metal music.
The title song is one of two in
the collection that
describe a woman’s pain when love goes wrong. Two others flip the script with stories of powerful women — one describes herself as “Cleopatra with a gun” — dumping unworthy men. Yet another song in the set is a horror-fantasy about a “she-devil” who picks up unwary men in nightclubs and lures them to a bad end.
And there’s more! The collapse of modern civilization is a perennial topic in metal. Storm shares new visions of that as well.
Close friends of the group might know who they’re aiming at with “Drama Queen.” Whoever the “toxic inciter of mayhem” may be, she certainly won’t want to be publicly outed as being the inspiration for it.
Visit reverbnation.com/Storm808.
