YAEL NAIM - YAEL NAIM
Apple scores again with its latest choice for sweet-voiced female ad singer. The airy vocals behind those MacBook Air promos are a French-Israeli import whose spare coffee shop of a U.S. debut feels pleasingly Euro, while maintaining enough spunk to pull off a Britney Spears cover and appeal to the Norah Jones/Sia set. “Yael Naim” is simple, lilting and lovely. Whisper-thin ballad “Lachlom” is near perfect as such things go, and the same goes for the twinkling “Far Far” (”How can you stay outside, there’s a beautiful mess inside”), while Naim’s cover of “Toxic” is a surprisingly fun trinket that carves a melodic core out of the original’s sculpted pop shell. Come for “New Soul,” stay for the full meal.
