September 14, 2007 · 1 Comment
Sara Bareilles (pronounced: bar-rell-is) has anything
but a little voice. The 25-year-old’s major-label debut
Little Voice is a misnomer from the time you push play. In a similar mold as A Fine Frenzy from yesterday, but Ms. Bareilles brings her voice full of passion and verve from the very beginning. While she was born and raised in Eureka, CA (about 100 miles south of the CA-OR border) she moved to Los Angeles when she began attending UCLA’s School of Communications. While in school she co-produced her first demo, and began playing open-mics then shows in the L.A. area. She eventually signed to Epic Records in 2005 and began working with producer Eric Rosse to make her debut album. While most the songs were already on her self-produced album, they were perfected and orchestrated professionally with Rosse.
Most people will immediately compare Ms. Bareilles to Fiona Apple or Norah Jones and she’s okay with these comparisons: “That’s fine. I love Norah’s subtlety and Fiona’s fierce lyrical prowess.” Her vocal range is truly dynamic and she uses this to her advantage to emote quite poignantly. This is truly amazing considering she’s had no formal training. Although she is easily comparable to the vast number of female artists with pianos she manages to bring something to the musical table that stands out from the crowd. While some songs lend themselves to Top-40, there is a precocious nature about Ms. Bareillis that makes her seem more approachable. She hasn’t been polished and packaged for stardom like a Christina Aguilera or Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton…yet. Songwriting and singing seemingly come very easy to Ms. Bareilles. This fact is one of her greatest strengths. She also knows a bit about writing songs about love; most of the album deals with the subject. Thankfully she has enough unique takes on the subject to make each track sound fresh. The song below was an iTunes Store “Single of the Week” a while back, but has since taken off. In fact, she is opening 10 shows for Maroon 5 with the highlight surely to be a performance at Madison Square Garden on October 10th. At which point she’ll then join Paolo Nutini and open 8 of his shows. So, Ms. Bareillis is already in some good company that will make her more of a household name.
Categories: Uncategorized
September 14, 2007 · 1 Comment
Sara Bareilles (pronounced: bar-rell-is) has anything
but a little voice. The 25-year-old’s major-label debut
Little Voice is a misnomer from the time you push play. In a similar mold as A Fine Frenzy from yesterday, but Ms. Bareilles brings her voice full of passion and verve from the very beginning. While she was born and raised in Eureka, CA (about 100 miles south of the CA-OR border) she moved to Los Angeles when she began attending UCLA’s School of Communications. While in school she co-produced her first demo, and began playing open-mics then shows in the L.A. area. She eventually signed to Epic Records in 2005 and began working with producer Eric Rosse to make her debut album. While most the songs were already on her self-produced album, they were perfected and orchestrated professionally with Rosse.
Most people will immediately compare Ms. Bareilles to Fiona Apple or Norah Jones and she’s okay with these comparisons: “That’s fine. I love Norah’s subtlety and Fiona’s fierce lyrical prowess.” Her vocal range is truly dynamic and she uses this to her advantage to emote quite poignantly. This is truly amazing considering she’s had no formal training. Although she is easily comparable to the vast number of female artists with pianos she manages to bring something to the musical table that stands out from the crowd. While some songs lend themselves to Top-40, there is a precocious nature about Ms. Bareillis that makes her seem more approachable. She hasn’t been polished and packaged for stardom like a Christina Aguilera or Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton…yet. Songwriting and singing seemingly come very easy to Ms. Bareilles. This fact is one of her greatest strengths. She also knows a bit about writing songs about love; most of the album deals with the subject. Thankfully she has enough unique takes on the subject to make each track sound fresh. The song below was an iTunes Store “Single of the Week” a while back, but has since taken off. In fact, she is opening 10 shows for Maroon 5 with the highlight surely to be a performance at Madison Square Garden on October 10th. At which point she’ll then join Paolo Nutini and open 8 of his shows. So, Ms. Bareillis is already in some good company that will make her more of a household name.
Categories: Uncategorized
Alison Sudol is only going to become even more popular. Rather, A Fine Frenzy will surely make a name for Alison Sudol. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter born in Seattle, relocated to Los Angeles when she was just 5. She taught herself to play piano in her mid-teens and recorded a short demo that immediately caught the attention of Capitol Records. After signing to Capitol she performed with great success at SXSW in March 2007. The stage name for Ms. Sudol, A Fine Frenzy, comes from Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A Fine Frenzy’s brand of music is influenced, as she says, by the likes of Keane and Coldplay. Ms. Sudol plays the piano beautifully and creates infectious melodies with her powerfully restrained voice. She sounds like an artist well beyond her years. With appearances on the likes of Jay Leno and Carson Daly, clearly either someone is listening or she’s getting great PR. Either way, it’s refreshing to hear another young voice that bends the mold for females with pianos. Unfortunately, the album as a whole does not really take off. The 14 songs on her debut
One Cell in the Sea (July 2007) kind of blend together and sees her repeating vocal techniques. Her lyrics are decent, but
she tries too hard to be profound. While she may wish to emulate Chris Martin, she doesn’t reach his emotional gravitas rendering the music just okay. Even though the album is enjoyable, and shows a gifted artist at the beginning of her career, it may leave some disappointed.
Categories: Uncategorized
Sara Bareilles (pronounced: bar-rell-is) has anything but a little voice. The 25-year-old’s major-label debut Little Voice is a misnomer from the time you push play. In a similar mold as A Fine Frenzy from yesterday, but Ms. Bareilles brings her voice full of passion and verve from the very beginning. While she was born and raised in Eureka, CA (about 100 miles south of the CA-OR border) she moved to Los Angeles when she began attending UCLA’s School of Communications. While in school she co-produced her first demo, and began playing open-mics then shows in the L.A. area. She eventually signed to Epic Records in 2005 and began working with producer Eric Rosse to make her debut album. While most the songs were already on her self-produced album, they were perfected and orchestrated professionally with Rosse.
Most people will immediately compare Ms. Bareilles to Fiona Apple or Norah Jones and she’s okay with these comparisons: “That’s fine. I love Norah’s subtlety and Fiona’s fierce lyrical prowess.” Her vocal range is truly dynamic and she uses this to her advantage to emote quite poignantly. This is truly amazing considering she’s had no formal training. Although she is easily comparable to the vast number of female artists with pianos she manages to bring something to the musical table that stands out from the crowd. While some songs lend themselves to Top-40, there is a precocious nature about Ms. Bareillis that makes her seem more approachable. She hasn’t been polished and packaged for stardom like a Christina Aguilera or Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton…yet. Songwriting and singing seemingly come very easy to Ms. Bareilles. This fact is one of her greatest strengths. She also knows a bit about writing songs about love; most of the album deals with the subject. Thankfully she has enough unique takes on the subject to make each track sound fresh. The song below was an iTunes Store “Single of the Week” a while back, but has since taken off. In fact, she is opening 10 shows for Maroon 5 with the highlight surely to be a performance at Madison Square Garden on October 10th. At which point she’ll then join Paolo Nutini and open 8 of his shows. So, Ms. Bareillis is already in some good company that will make her more of a household name.
