My love for Adaline’s music was a fast-paced evolution.
It all began with her voice.
The first time I heard it was at the Vancouver City Limits music festival at the Beaumont Studios, in a little intimate theatre with nothing but her emotive piano playing to accompany her. Haunting and beautiful, all it took was that voice of hers to captivate the crowd. Like she were channeling an energy from some other ethereal place, her voice simultaneously lulls and awakens you. Soothing, yet powerful.
It wasn’t until I saw her perform with her band a couple days later, kicking off her Western Canada tour at the Media Club that I really fell for her songs.
With hard-hitting pulsating drum beats, stimulating guitar, and ethereal synthesized sounds her music took on a whole new invigorating energy and explosive emotional appeal, and I was amazed by the depth and vitality it breathed.
What in my first introduction had been moving ballads were now engrossing cutting edge electro/rock songs and I could hear echoes of influences from Radiohead, Coldplay, Doves, Bjork, Esthero, and Air. Rather than drowning her out, the drums and guitar complement her sound and take it to another level, turning it into something new. "Poor You" is a heartbreaker that starts off slow - a perfect example of one of her songs that thrives on the echoes of the synthesizer and the gradual buildup of the beats of the drums and guitar.
With her brother on the guitar and a damn good drummer accompanying her, Adaline’s performance was electrifying. Her cabaret style song "Whiter/Straighter," in which her father played the trumpet, brought everyone up to the front to dance, sway, and sing along. "Chemical Spill," which she told us was her favourite song to sing, with its pulsating electro beat, had the audience completely transfixed.
After each song a roaring applause would ensue and Adaline would bashfully thank everyone and look to her brother and father in a jaw-dropped expression of, “Do you see this? Is this for real?” Sometimes the applause would overwhelm her so much that with a beaming slightly embarrassed smile she would shake her head in disbelief and grab it with her hands like she were keeping it from exploding from the high she were getting off of the crowd.
But the high was mutual, as people kept yelling, “You’re amazing!” throughout the night. The night ended with a real “kumbuya” type moment as everyone, to her obvious surprise and delight, swayed and sang along to her love song "We’ve Got Something." As everyone sang, “I’ve got something, you’ve got something, we’ve got something,” it felt like that something was in the room that night, and that something was some kind of musical high.
Okay, so after being so hyped up from her live performances I was curious to hear her CD, Famous For Fire, which was released in April of 2008.
Very rare does a CD live up to expectations, but this one definitely did
It is very well put together, with its great beats and melodies full of variation. Now I find myself replaying it over and over and humming her songs all day. This CD makes you wanna dance, makes you wanna cry, makes you wanna lie on your living room floor and just listen, makes you wanna sway, and makes you wanna sing. It surprised and thoroughly impressed me.
Sometimes people can sing, and sometimes people can even sing and write good songs. Sometimes people can sing, and write good songs, and even put on a damn good show, but to do all that and put out a fantastic debut album? Well I’d say, she’s got something!
New Song
Poor You
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