This week I’m mostly listening to: Banks, Charlene Soraia and James Vincent McMorrow

This week I’m mostly listening to…

Banks is an electronic soul singer, keyboardist and songwriter from LA. ‘Waiting Game’ is the first track to appear on her debut EP entitled ‘London’ (September 10th , 2013). The EP showcases Banks’s sultry, emotive and soulful vocals perfectly and as a result, critics and musical peers alike have been quick to namecheck the LA native in their top tips for 2014. Katy Perry is a big fan and she has excellent taste in music; she brought the amazing School of Seven Bells to my attention. Banks is a highly commercial and image-driven artist, in a similar fashion to Lana Del Rey. She appears to have the full package and I would be very surprised if she wasn’t sitting firmly in the UK album charts by this time next year.

 

Charlene Soraia has released a new music video for her track, ‘Standing Stone’, which is also free to download on her Facebook page. The music video was a collaboration between Soraia and her fans – she asked fans to send in pictures of themselves with family and loved ones, in the hope that they might be featured in the retrospective visual.

Soraia is preparing to release her second album ‘Love Is The Law’ later this year. Like many people, I’ve been a fan of hers since hearing her cover of ‘Wherever You Will Go’ in 2011 and it’s been great to see the development in both her songwriting and artistic style. Soraia has a close relationship with her fans and facilitates this through her various social media channels. You get the impression that she is just an ordinary, down to earth girl with an extraordinary vocal talent that even she doesn’t quite know what to do with yet. Unaffected: the best quality one can have.

 

‘Cavalier’ is taken from James Vincent McMorrow‘s upcoming second album ‘Post Tropical’, to be released on January 13th, 2014 (UK/US). The record features music that McMorrow describes himself as preferring to listen to. Debut album ‘Early in the Morning’ (2011) was heavily folk-influenced, whilst this collection leans more towards the softer side of R&B and has been categorised somewhere between Antony And The Johnsons and James Blake. McMorrow’s appeal for me has always been his lyrical sentimentality delivered via his stunning falsetto. He makes these songwriting and vocal qualities appear effortless and simplistic and these elements of his artistry are as prominent as ever on this record. I expect this album to do very well in 2014.

 

www.hernameisbanks.com / @hernameisbanks

www.charlenesoraia.com / @CharleneSoraia

www.jamesvmcmorrow.com / @jamesvmcmorrow

shelleyhanveywriter 🙂

International indie-rock favourites @thetempertrap confirmed for Liverpool Sound City festival

International indie-rock favourites, The Temper Trap, have been confirmed for 2012’s Liverpool Sound City festival.

The three-day festival takes place on Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th May 2012 and wristbands cost £30 per person. This admits you to every gig, across all three days. This represents amazing value for money considering the artists on the billing and the likely cost of a ticket to see those alone. A full festival pass costs £120, which gives you access to the gigs, panels, masterclasses, seminars and workshops.

To purchase tickets or to find out more about the festival, please visit www.liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk.

shelleyhanveywriter 🙂

James Vincent McMorrow @jamesvmcmorrow – the cause of my temporary blindness.

James Vincent McMorrow is an Irish folk singer-songwriter, whose voice I am currently enjoying somewhat of a love affair with. My romantic dalliance was struck up one night last week, on an otherwise perfectly average weekday evening; what wasn’t average however, was the voice streaming out from my television which had put my senses in to a positive spin. I couldn’t even tell you what the advertisement was for, such was the thrall of the track which had resulted in my temporary blindness.

The voice; James Vincent McMorrow. The track; ‘Higher Love.’

 

Pleasantly wooed, I vowed to learn more about this mysterious stranger and have to concede that I am yet to be disappointed by man or music. McMorrow released his debut album, ‘Early in the Morning’ in February, 2010 to critical acclaim in his native Ireland. His official website describes the record as “…a completely self recorded and played affair, filled with beguiling and vivid stories, fables that move from a whisper in your ear to a mountainous crescendo in the space of a song.” Unsurprising therefore, that several of the tracks have already been picked up to feature on various high gloss American teen dramas – they do love a suitably striking track to accompany their dark and destructive passions.

McMorrow has spoken about his rather fragmented approach to songwriting; he has a first line in his head and a vague sense of the end point or conclusion, but prefers the body of the song to be predominantly about the melody. Listening to tracks such as ‘If I Had a Boat’ and ‘We Don’t Eat’, it would certainly be difficult to define the absolute meaning of the lyrics and I think that this was very much McMorrow’s intention, he has since said:

When I write lyrics they come together in a pretty uncoordinated way, lines get written, slowly link up until a story reveals itself. It was only when I was finished that I looked back and saw the words for what they were, realized what they meant.

The beauty of lyrics for me, is their ability to evoke different responses in every listener: to bring comfort and peace to one, whilst stirring buried and unresolved feelings in another.

 

 

‘Early in the Morning’ has just been included in NPR Music ‘s ’50 Best Albums of 2011′ list. Listening to the album in full, it becomes clear that we shall be seeing and hearing a great deal more from James Vincent McMorrow in 2012.

www.jamesvmcmorrow.com / www.twitter.com/jamesvmcmorrow

shelleyhanveywriter 🙂