Ahmad Is My Name – Ahmad McCown (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

They say that it is essential to make an excellent first impression and that a good introduction will always make people remember who you are. Well, this is something that positive-popster Ahmad McCown takes literally with his latest single, Ahmad Is My Name. How much more of an excellent first impression can you make than offering up a groovy song with just such an introduction in its title? That is a smart move, indeed.

Ahmad McCown has always made music that reveals positivity, optimism, and pleasant vibes. His mannered music is all about being kind, supportive, and friendly to people, even while trying to fulfill his dreams and ambitions. As My Destination showed last year, and as this latest single proves again, his attitude is that everything is a team effort and that we can all chase our dreams without putting each other down as we do so. His outlook and world view is the very embodiment of that famous quote, “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.”

His music is the epitome of much of the music made in the mainstream, where it seems everyone is out to get the competition, put them down, and come out on top at all costs. Ahmad offers a better solution, you should join his gang, a gang that contains every single person on the planet.

Ahmad Is My Name is an infectious slice of dance-pop, but unlike most music made in those quarters, it has a real message. Not for him the moaning about how hard he has had things, he doesn’t dwell on how tough life is, he doesn’t resent the cards that life has dealt him, he just takes what he has and runs with it, and runs towards a potentially bright and brilliant musical future.

Infectious indeed, built on the modern, clubland equivalent of disco beats and dancefloor claps, woven through with gentle piano lines and beguiling electronica, rumbling bass lines, and lots of space to let the light get in to allow the song to breathe. All of this spacious yet addictive music frames his vocals perfectly, driving the song but never getting in the way of him making clear his message, mission statement, and personal mantra.

As always, Ahmad McCown is an oasis of positivity, optimism, honesty, and authenticity in a desert of darker motivated, fame-seeking, style over substance driven music. It’s what he does, and he does it so well.