I really like this album. It's hard to slap a label on her musically. The songs vary from R & B sounding to pop to rock. She wrote or co-wrote all the songs. Her voice is a bit lowish, maybe along the lines of Annie Lennox's...? Based on this album she seems like a very above average songwriter. There's more than a few catchy tunes. She has an intresting cast of musicans to suppourt her too. Billy Preston on keyboards. I like the whiney, retro sounding B-3 organ he plays on many of the songs. Veterns Dean Parks and Larry Klein add electric guitars and some other instruments. She occasionally adds acoustic quitar.
If you're looking for an alternative to stuff like, say, Norah Jones. Maybe this could be it? This album veers into easy rock unlike Jones' sound that straddles country and jazz. Myself, I'm not particularly impressed with Norah's songwriting. Fordham's writing is the album's strength IMO. There are two unlisted bonus songs also, tracks #12 and 13, FUNNY GUY and SILVER, respectively. They're better than throw-in's. They're both quite worthwhile. What's up with easter eggs and mystery bonus tracks these days...? For me, just tell me what you got!
There are a bunch of really infectious tunes here, me thinks. Dean Park's fuzzy guitar lays the foundation for IT'S ANOTHER YOU DAY, a song about the joy of love. Hit quality IMO. However she resides on Vanguard Records. They don't get hits do they? They aren't on the payola track are they?
In WAKE UP WITH YOU (THE I WANNA SONG) she sings the words all 15 year old boys wish to hear," I wanna get lucky, I wanna get laid, I wanna lay down in the bed that we made together, 'an I wanna get down with it, wanna get high, wanna stop life from just passing me by, I wanna fly like a bird, I wanna sing and be heard, I want a room with a view, I want to wake up with you...". This is all done with a synthesizer as a base with a funky R & B style guitar and Preston's organ whirring here and there.
CONCRETE LOVE, MISSING MAN, BUTTERFLY, FOOLISH THING and SOMETHING RIGHT all sound terrific to me. Fordham doesn't have the purfect singing voice but she makes the most out of what she's got. Her strong compositions lend her weight too. FOOLISH THING is an instant classic in my mind, anyway. It's an awfully good song about losing a lover. Dean Park's crying guitar props the thing up subtly but beautifully.
The SA-CD is a hybrid but there's no M/C track. Don't let that stop you! If you're a M/C junkie there's always 5-channel stereo processing. Good music is more important than channel counts in my book. The album is well recorded and sounds outstanding on my stereo system employing the XA777ES and sounds fairly good on my lesser players too.
The majors are dilly-dallying around with SA-CD and DVD-A but small labels like Vanguard are not. This must be one of their best young artists and they've put her out there. She may be bound for obscurity? But, she's sounds like a star to me. This is an album worth a shot, me thinks.
I got it for a reasonable price at the local Busted Buy too....
I may have to try that one...?