Skin

This is great album by a great artist taken way to soon.

Rightly or wrongly, I tend to bracket this album with those of Seal around this period and, for my money, it runs a very close second to Seal's highly successful 1994 outing, the one with songs on it such as Prayer For The Dying and Kiss From A Rose. This is all the more creditable, given that Skin wasn't recorded at a state of the art London studio with a stellar cast of supporting musicians or a production maestro such as Trevor Horn overseeing the proceedings. Rather, it was recorded at (the now defunct) Axis Studio in Sheffield, Yorkshire and produced by Kevin Bacon & Jonathan Quarmby, with a cast of supporting musicians all quite unknown to me.For all that, though, it's a truly wonderful album, most of its ten songs co-written by Messrs Lewis, Bacon and Quarmby, with the standard rhythm section of drums & bass augmented variously by guitar, trumpet, flute, sax, trombone and percussion. The lyrics, though different, bear comparison with those of Seal and, although it would be overstating things to claim that Mr Lewis' voice is quite in the same league as that of Seal, there's plenty of feeling and emotion to his delivery.Were it not for his untimely early death in Los Angeles, apparently as a result of having jumped from a fourth floor balcony whilst under the influence of methamphetamines, at the age of just 26, not long after Skin was released, who knows what might have followed on subsequent albums? Had they built on this undeniably highly auspicious debut, he might well have had a very illustrious career, but now we'll never know.That aside, Skin is well worth seeking out, not least in view of the fact that used copies seem now to be available for upwards of just a penny.

It was not until I read the reviews within the last 6 months that I learned of his untimely passing. This album when it was released in 1992 was miles beyond what Seal was doing and has it roots in ambient jazz that should have put him in the forefromt of the NAC/Smooth Jazz Radio movement that ensued in the 5 years after. The first few songs are the strongest with hypnotic in an almost meditatively insunuating delivery. "Drowning in Your Eyes" and its progressive quiet-storm is now duplicated by the likes of Maxwell on a track from him "Embrya" entitled "Drowndeep(Hula)". Ephraim Lewis was a man before his time and before the definition and mass marketing of quiet-storm/ambient pop which took its cue from burbling electronica and synths; "Skin", the title cut, is the presage to Madonna's "Drowned World (Substitute for Love) both sonically and thematically. Such a shame that we had to lose him.

Great CD, glad I could still find it. If you don't know Ephraim's story, it is a sad one, but love the smooth rhythm and heartfelt lyrics.

Smooth voice...like velvet....and he has such control yet so much passion!!! What a talent!!! Just discovered him about a year ago. So sad to learn that he's passed away after only one album. Gone way too young and too soon.

Awesome recording.

great