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Jessica Rhaye - Short Stories - CD Review
Times & Transcript October 18, 2006 By Eric Lewis Eric Lewis rates his music reviews on a scale of one to five, with (*) equivalent to a poor rating, (**) fair, (***) good, (****) very good and (*****) excellent. Jessica Rhaye - Short Stories (*** 1/2) “Finally” is a good word to use here. It took Ms. Rhaye, a Saint John singer-songwriter, six years to get her second album out. Now that its here, I can report it was worth the wait. This is a solid collection of folk tunes disguised by the instrumentation and production as pop songs. Along the lines of Jewel and Sarah McLachlan, a lot of these tunes could easily be radio hits. While a lot of the songs here are slower tunes, such as the pleasing opener “Wild Flowers” and the beautiful closer “Chasing Sunsets,” the album has a few more upbeat moments like the playful “Running For The Door” and the fun, poppy “Holding Out.” A catchy number, it features Maritime multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier laying down a banjo track on top of the dance-y pop tune. It strikes you as a little strange at first, but what’s even stranger is how well it works. The songs themselves are all quite good — some are great — but the real strength here is Jessica’s wonderful voice. Not only does she have a great voice, but she knows when and how to use it. While someone like Christina Aguilera wants you to know how good a singer she is by singing scales over every word, Jessica never overdoes it, but when she does reach that extra step, it heightens the emotion and impact of the song and really surprises. For fans of Jewel, Sarah McLachlan and the like, this is a great album. |