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Review: Jack Foley
"ON the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la
person, but I love the dark side of music and I will always want
to explore that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff
underneath for sure."
So says rapidly emerging Scottish singer-songwriter, KT Tunstall,
when talking about her debut album, Eye To The Telescope.
And it's easy to see what she means while listening to some of
the material on it.
There is frequently a bluesy feel to proceedings, born from intensely
personal lyrics about love, lift, success and career that inevitably
bring a certain amount of sorrow with it.
But anyone thinking that Scotland has now found a female equivalent
to the melancholic style of Radiohead would be wrong.
Tunstall's tracks encompass a variety of styles and provoke a
number of comparisons - from Fleetwood Mac to Norah
Jones and Sheryl Crow to boot.
It's an accessible, pleasant listen, full of accomplished material
that really beg you to sit down and listen.
Certain tracks feel a little too plodding for their own good,
such as Through The Dark, which arrives a little too
soon after the similarly low-key Stoppin' The Love.
But while Through The Dark never really gets going,
the blues guitar, dusky vocals and delicious beat on Stoppin'
The Love is a real treat, and indicative of a major new talent.
The album gets off to a terrific start, as well, with the breezy
Other Side of the World, which evokes memories of the
smooth vocal style and dreamy melodies of another emerging act
from the other end of the country, The
Wire Daisies.
Comparisons with fellow Scottish outfits such as Travis and Texas
are more apparent during the rocky, defiant second track, Another
Place To Fall, which lend Tunstall's vocals a grittier edge,
that neatly offsets some of the softer material.
While the Norah Jones style is rife throughout the sweet-sounding
Under The Weather.
And a more upbeat style is apparent on the lively Suddenly
I See, which rates among the most instantly catchy on the
album.
Yet, it is this mixture of styles that keeps the album so fresh
and evolving. Tunstall is no one-trick pony and the collection
of songs she has assembled - apparently whittled down from over
100 - make for an extremely enticing listen.
Eye To The Telescope is a very accomplished debut indeed
and I'd be very surprised if Tunstall didn't emerge as one of
the female artists of 2005.
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