Human Spirit is Don Lydon’s latest song… and I don’t know what to make of it. Not necessarily in a bad way, it’s just that I’ve never seen anything like it before.Before the song even starts, we see something unusual going on, the presence of a studio… outside the studio. Open Air Studio recorded and filmed the song in the beautiful town of Hammana, Lebanon.

The song starts out with an acoustic guitar, a violin, and female vocals. The saxophone kicks in at 1:26, providing a very soothing melody. After that, Don Lydon sings a duet with Clara Kossaifi (the main female vocalist). Let’s not forget that ukelele.

At around 2:45, we see the Don switch out his classical guitar for an electric and the song takes on a much more jazzy feel, and sees the trumpet get introduced.

 

Exactly two minutes later, the song evolves again, this time rock ‘n’ roll. It feels like an 80’s rock tune, but that feeling is soon dispelled by the funky bass from Dirty Enzyme’s Anthony Atwe. Anthony, Philippe, and Ayman are crucial here, as they are the main driving force of the song at this point.

At the fifth minute, the song breaks off into a space-y, ambient feel. Before once again going back to jazz for a short while, then ‘switching’ to the ambient feel again.

The final minute or so ‘wraps it up’ and concludes the song with an amalgamation of genres.

Since I was at a loss as to what genre this song fits into, I reached out to Lydon and he told me that he thinks of the genre as ‘Organic’.

 

Lydon Human Spirit

Now you see how I am justified in saying that I don’t know how to feel about Human Spirit.  At first listen, I thought he should’ve just written 3 or 4 different songs instead of combining them into one. Now that I listened to it again, I think it’s a marvel it doesn’t fall apart under its own weight. Don Lydon really demonstrated his skills as a musician and songwriter when he wrote this. The song (naturally) draws influence from many sources, manages to put them together and maintain its own identity.

Of course, let’s not forget the huge input from the rest of the band, they all put their energies into writing this, and their creative input paid off.

Whether you are in love with this song, or even if you hate it, it’s a hard song to forget. Thumbs up to Lydon for even attempting to record this very unconventional and unique song.

Lydon is:

  • Vocals: Clara Kossaifi
  • Bass: Anthony Atwe
  • Keys: Ayman Zebdawi (audio only)
  • Keys: Christopher Ibrahim (video only)
  • Drums: Philippe Dib
  • Ukulele & Trumpet: Wael Abifaker
  • Saxophone: Mario Suga
  • Violin: Christian Atallah (audio only)
  • Violin: Alaa Arsheed (video only)
  • Vocals & Guitars:  Don Lydon

– Antoine Kanaan.

Read more by:  Antoine Kanaan.
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What do you think?  Did you like the song?   Leave a Comment.

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