[REVIEW] The Secret Handshake – Night And Day

Artist: The Secret Handshake
Album: Night & Day
Label: Triple Crown Records
Release Date: 8/17/10

Been missing the old sounds of Motown from your childhood? Perhaps you weren’t around in the 70′s and none of dad’s Jackson 5 records play on the Emerson Swingmate Portable anymore. Well lucky for you, The Secret Handshake just came out with a new album called Night & Day! Now, you might be like “OMG, WTF does that have to do with me? Isn’t Luis Dubuc like all electronica and Skee-Lo covers?” Well if you asked me that, I’d tell you this. “No, fair listener! Luis apparently thinks you need to expand your musical horizons!” Hence why he wrote a full, 11 track deliciously extravagant soul and motown Jr Walker Gladys Knight Jimmy Ruffin Commodores and Temptations style. No lie.

I don’t want you to get turned off by the sounds of that scary word ‘Soul’. The related food is pretty good as well, and whether you like the stylings of the witty and soothing Marvin Gaye or not, you better respect that soul artists got talent! Dubuc doesn’t lose any of that feel with this new venture either. The Secret Handshake is just as good as it was before, just with a relatively new sound. And if change scares you, worry not, fair listener, it still has that wonderfully smooth voice behind the sound, and though it has a motown-y turn, it still has all the feeling of a TSH album. See? Nothing to be scared about.

Every song on this album sounds like another song I think I might’ve heard while listening to Oldies 103.3 riding in the car to Wal-Mart on sunday mornings with my dad, good for a little reminiscing. They all make you want to move and boogie down like no other. Upbeat, and swinging, there isn’t really a slow track on the album. If you want to dance, check out the Jackson 5 sounding, “Domino”. Need some jams for making love? Throw on “Black Girl”. Put “Magic” on during a nice candle lit dinner, or just listen to it if you’re looking for the words to tell that special someone how you feel. It’s all good. Feel that piano? It’s like it speaks to you.

Adversely, there are a few tracks that are still about love, but more so about falling out of it. This CD’s got everything! A roller-coaster of emotion. “You Got me” is the track where he flat out says it, “Someone like you, and someone like me, were never meant to be”, to be precise. The last three tracks are pretty much the same deal, but it’s right in the title with “Is This Through?”, or “Used To Be Sweet”, and then the round out track “Here’s To You”, which is about letting someone troublesome in your life know how much of a bother they are. It’s like lyrical advice, you can’t go wrong.

All in all, Night & Day is a good time.  If you’re feeling something a little different, a little moody, and very soulful, check out Dubuc’s new album.. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.