Sonya Kitchell - This Storm
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Sonya KitchellEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-09-02
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- For Every Drop
- Borderline
- Running
- Here To There
- Walk Away
- Fire
- Soldier's Lament
- Robin In The Snow
- Who Knows After All
- Effortless
- So Lonely
- This Storm
Free Music Notes for This Storm
Free Music Review: "This Storm" is an awesome album from an emerging major talent.
Hit: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Sonya Kitchell is a very young blonde woman but her voice has depth and texture beyond her years and her songs are knowing, lyrical, and display a human wisdom that would be impressive at any age. I have little doubt that we are witnessing the emergence of a major talent. "This Storm" is a great album - ten of the twelve songs are what I consider winners, and I'm pretty sure three of them ("For Every Drop", "Fire", and "Robin in the Snow") are destined for popular radio success. I put this on my short list for best folk rock album of 2008 - I can't believe I got this in advance from the Vine program (thanks!)
Stylistically Kitchell moves around in the spaces between folk rock, country, and jazz/blues. Her voice has a textured breathy quality, like someone who has lived. There's a feathery heathery quality to her falsetto, which she deploys in her country folk rock mode in a way that's reminiscent of Jewel - but without Jewel's succulent power. But Sonya belts it out in the choruses and can display some power of her own in those moments in the songs where its demanded. Her music is reminiscent of many folk rock artists - but is something new in the aggregate. Her voice itself compares poorly with top artists in her genre such as, say, Jewel (with the falsetto breaks and country style), or Joan Osborne (with the jazz blues infusion). I'd compare her mix of vocal power and songwriting force more to Sheryl Crow - a woman who can write amazing songs and deliver them well without possessing an absolute cannon of a voice. Kitchell succeeds with style and nuance rather than power. There's deep texture in her quiet moments, redolent of experience and sadness. Then there are those feathery breaks and her ability to nail full throated power choruses - but even at her peaks there's a softness and vulnerability that seduces rather than knocks you down.
What really stands out is the songwriting. Sonya Kitchell writes sophisticated interesting songs with lots of variety song to song, and plenty of tempo and emotional shifting within many of the songs and this makes each track feel fresh and interesting. There is plenty of pain and pathos, as well as love and passion in these songs. I could describe them, but you're better off listening to them. As I've said, "Fire" with it's jazz and passion; "Robin in the Snow" with it's beautiful simple arrangement and it's gentle haunting pathos and metaphor; and "For Every Drop" with it's jazz/folk hybrid style and infectious pace and energy are great places for jumping off - but I think the first 10 of the 12 are all winners.
I do have one significant problem with "The Storm". Kitchell's vocal softness isn't done any favors by the mix. Malcolm Burn - usually a talented and successful producer, dropped the ball with the compressed and muted sonics on this album. There's a gauzy misty quality to the sound that unifies the varied tunes, but robs them of clarity and power and Kitchell needs all the power she can get. I get this image that Burn has this impression of Kitchell as a willowy female seen through lacy window shades while she dances among falling leaves. The Vaseline on the sonic lens gets thicker and thicker as the album progresses to the point where it's a major distraction in the last two songs where the sonic softness trashes the sense of fidelity and it sounds like listening to an AM radio. A lot of these songs sound quite distinct from one another and maybe Burns thought he should meld them all into a cohesive whole with this kind of trick - but it's not in the service of the music and has no place here. Kitchell deserves to be close miked and presented with fidelity and immediacy. Hopefully the next producer will get out the way and let music do the talking. These production issues don't ruin the first 7 songs or so - and don't ruin the album as a whole, but constitute my biggest issue with it. I'd dock it a star except I like the songwriting so much - call it 4.5 stars.
All in all - if you like folk rock female artists like Lucy Kaplansky, Ani DeFranco, Nanci Griffith, Patty Larkin, Gillian Welch etc... you should definitely check out Sonya Kitchell's "This Storm". She's the real deal and this is a solid sophomore effort.
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