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Review: Jack Foley
LISA Miskovsky is widely considered to be Sweden's premier singer
songwriter.
She has already won a Swedish Grammy for best female artist and
her debut album, Falling Water, has gone double platinum.
She is also responsible for penning one of the Backstreet Boys'
biggest hits, Shape of My Heart.
Now that she has set her sights on the UK, expect her to generate
quite a massive following.
Falling Water, the name of which was inspired by the
architect Frank Lloyd Wright's house design of the same name,
is a pleasant affair that works best when delivering vibrant,
sun-drenched melodies and becomes slightly more cumbersome when
charting the overly familiar country-tinged ballad territory.
Kicking off with the catchy recent single, Lady Stardust,
the album then proceeds to deliver a mixed bag of ballads and
pop records that showcase two sides to the artist.
On Lady Stardust form, she's bright, cheerful and emerges
as a cross between Shania Twain/Sheryl Crow and The Cardigans.
Hence, the lively rhythms of Brand New Day (with guitars
reminiscent of Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing), and lush
acoustic guitars of Sing To Me, work far better than
the slightly tepid piano-based ballad, Butterfly Man,
or its successor, Restless Heart, which finds the singer's
vocals at their most longing.
The album highlight is Midnight Sun, a genuinely breezy
affair that begins brightly and keeps getting better.
But the second half of the album becomes a little too pensive
and serious for its own good and feels better suited to female
listeners who like to sit back and enjoy a really good ballad
(much in the same way they might revel in a really cheesy chick
flick).
It's certainly an accomplished effort (produced by Joakim Berg
and Simon Nordberg) that marks Miskovsky out as a major 'new'
talent.
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