February 2014 – Page 3 – BILLCSMUSIC BLOG

UK Vocalists Supreme: @Harrietsmusic and @Denise_VanOuten

HARRIET, “Can I Keep You”

DENISE VAN OUTEN, “You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You”

UK singers Harriet and Denise Van Outen have both been working with the stellar talent of Mr. Steve Anderson, and have thus come to my attention with their recent songs.

I’ve already written about Harriet’s “Afterglow”, which is a real stunner awaiting official release. In the meantime, we have the warm, rich, mellifluous sound of “Can I Keep You” available for free download below on her Soundcloud page. The original comparison to Karen Carpenter is no fluke; there was no one in her time that sounded like her, and Harriet also has her own uniqueness at play in our time. “Can I Keep You” is a lovely, compact (2:49) listen.

https://soundcloud.com/harrietsmusic/harriet-can-i-keep-you

Denise Van Outen is well known to UK audiences as an actress and TV presenter. She’s recently began a one woman stage play called “Some Girl That I Used To Know”, from which we have her cover of 1989 UK #1 and Billboard Top 10 Dance Club hit “You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You”, originally recorded by Sonia and written by Stock-Aitken-Waterman. Denise has slowed it down as a pensive but powerful ballad to showcase her beautiful voice. While I’m not sure if this could be Top 40 radio material, the quality of the song and performance is unmistakeable, and sometimes you just need to bask in appreciation for all of the hard work that made covering a song like this work so well. As far as I know the music from the play isn’t officially released yet, but you can hear more of the songs – covers of pop gems such as “Hold Me Now” and “Your Loving Arms” – on the Some Girl That I Used To Know website.

Dance Club Bound: “Residents of Darkness” by New UK Singer @ClaudiaKaneUK

CLAUDIA KANE, “Residents of Darkness”

New UK singer Claudia Kane has arrived with a seductive and sultry single bent on conquering late night club denizens with “Residents Of Darkness”. The song really reminds me a lot of Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back”, both vocally and rhythmically. Add influences from Suzanne Vega through to Tori Amos and Massive Attack, and you can hear where Claudia might be headed. She showcases her attractive self quite well in this self-made video, though the rest of the sequences don’t add much to the song. Nonetheless “Residents of Darkness” immediately stands out on its own – remixes would be very welcome!

The AcousticKilla Side of @NickIsTheTruth with “If This Is Love” and “What If”

NICK, “If This Is Love” and “What If” (video)

Nick Hagelin’s music has been regularly featured in my blog posts since I first heard it in 2010 on his more straight-forward pop EP Take Off. Since then, Nick has dabbled more on the R&B tip, and rightly so given his far-ranging voice which instantly draws comparisons to Justin Timberlake. But Nick’s sound has always been more direct and street-wise, and recently shifted over to some softer songs in his “AcousticKilla” side, and ones that he didn’t necessarily write.

“What If” (video above) is a beautifully sung classic story of breakup and ‘what if’ things had been different, in this case “what if I had loved you?”. You have to wait a bit for Nick’s falsetto, but it’s there! Thematically, it’s almost like the successor to Nick’s own “Ex Games”, still available as a free Soundcloud download as are “What If” and “If This Is Love”. The latter song puts him into Travis Garland territory with a sexy Latin flavoured number that could mix easily into Travis’ “Easy” (currently riding my chart at #2).

The great thing about these songs is that they show that Nick takes risks, which is probably part of why Streamline/Interscope signed him (and we’ll await the results of that relationship). Do yourself a favour and find out what I’m talking about by downloading all three songs below.

https://soundcloud.com/acoustickilla/nick-if-this-is-love

https://soundcloud.com/acoustickilla/nick-what-if

https://soundcloud.com/acoustickilla/ex-games-nick-hagelin

Serenely Soulful: New EP from @AdamExler, “You”

ADAM EXLER, You (EP)

Singer/songwriter/keyboardist Adam Exler is no newcomer to music, as you will tell from the highly professional execution of the songs on his EP, You. He did trade in a career as a national tennis champion some years ago for music, and more recently received high critical acclaim for his band Everblue. You is his latest release, and if you could put a dollar value on such splendid, learned, and soulful voices like Adam’s we’d all be rich 🙂

Not only is You so very solid in terms of production and overall sound, but Adam’s songwriting is extremely earnest, something that’s missing often in the songs you hear on the radio. So while the songs on You aren’t really Top 40 ready, other adult contemporary formats would find favour with the positive messaging behind “Dreamers”, or perhaps the deep down soul of “Rain” or “Inside”, which would slide in comfortably next to Dave Matthews, Counting Crows, or even John Legend, or Frank Ocean. Country flavour shows up on “Sunshine” and “Crying Time”. But Adam’s anchor appears to be blues, having been inspired as a youngster to pursue music after hearing B.B. King’s seminal “The Thrill Is Gone”. I’m going to throw in my own personal obscure comparison to British singer William Topley, whose rock/R&B band The Blessing was one of my joys in the early 90’s. He since went to some success as a country singer and still performs today. Check out The Blessing’s video for “Delta Rain” below to see what I mean!

Adam Exler’s music is instantly likeable and should take him to good places in 2014. Listen to the entire EP on his Reverb Nation page and buy it on iTunes.

Powerful Stuff: Hard Rockers @The88sband Self-Titled EP

The 88’s, self-titled EP

Hard rock is not usually a genre I write about. I did go through a brief phase in my music life where I wanted loud hairband music more frequently than usual about 25 years ago 😛 In any event, The 88’s is a solid, talented trio who are passionate about their music. It comes across in the care of the arrangements of the songs written by guitarist Luis. All three members come from different parts of the world – Luis (Portugal), drummer Joe (NYC), and vocalist Pheel (France) – and they apparently are based out of Shanghai. It’s no fluke that they are gathering fans from all over the world when their songs are so good.

“For You, I’ll Sing My Song” has the potential to be a hit at mainstream rock radio with a great message and melody. “Get Me Through” features traditional Portuguese guitar and backing vocals from a soulful singer named Lola. Other songs are sung partially in French too! But most of the time the band’s key influences from Metallica to System Of A Down shine through, and incorporating all of this results in a unique sound within a sometimes pretty static music genre.

Lovers of hard, angry rock with a difference will be completely sold. If you like pop/rock/metal in general, then I guarantee that The 88’s will make you sit up at attention. Listen to their EP and more at their official website right here. Watch the video of “Velvet Rock” at the top of this post.