Leni - Bipolar (CD)

Born and raised in Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria, the singer Lena Mentschel (33) has lived in Graz, Austria, since 2006. She sings, plays the piano and scrubs the ukulele with great devotion. Leni, her stage name, studied jazz in Graz, but she has always loved soul even more than jazz music, especially that of the 70s.
On her new album, which bears the striking title "Bipolar", Leni describes the most diverse emotional worlds in twelve songs. An emotional roller coaster ride that reflects everything from euphoric party mood to deep melancholy. She sings with inimitable ease and a smile on her face from the depths of her soul and reveals with a good portion of "shame" which two fundamentally opposite souls are sleeping in her chest. Everything is honest and 100% Leni, nothing is artificial and contaminated by clichés. For this reason, she also decided to sing in her Bavarian dialect for the first time, which makes it easier for her to let her ideas and feelings out unfiltered.
With "Bipolar" the musician Leni dares the courageous step towards soulful danceability, towards melodic pop. The first single "Amsterdam" made the scene sit up and take notice. Soulful pop sounds from Leni, that was new. With the current single release "Gelato al Limon", Leni elegantly and with verve combines the genres of soul, pop and funk. The tingling love song humorously combines erotic affection for one (or several?) sexy guys with devotion to their favorite ice cream. Sure, soul, funk and sexy feelings, that fits and nobody knows how to bring these things together like the attractive Leni with her unique and soulful staccato singing, which sometimes reminds a bit of Prince.
The leitmotif of the album is naturally represented by the title song "Bipolar", which describes the two sides of life and personality with ideas ranging from amusing to grotesque. Leni describes her Waterloo in love with original and delicious comparisons in the rhythmically sophisticated song "Tennis". The song "Two pairs of different shoes" is bluesy and soulful. This is about a guy who never does what he promises or says. Everyone knows such a shady steam talker. It was definitely about time someone wrote a song about them. The populist zeitgeist will certainly allow for this.
Another highlight of the album is the last song on the album, the intense ballad "Someday". The title describes how one sums up one's life shortly before death and lets it play out in front of oneself. Laughter and tears go hand in hand here. As actually on the whole album, which strings together beautiful musical pearls. Leni has reinvented herself with her new work and also found herself musically.
Not least because of this, “bipolar” will make many people happy, that's for sure.

01 Gelato al Limon
02 Amsterdam
03 Tennis
04 Weird
05 Bipolar
06 The thing
07 2 pairs of different shoes
8. Nothing starts with me today
9. When you laugh
10. Princess
11. Ois & Nothing
12. Eventually