Our Version of Events Reviews

Even in the world of pop, at times, little miracles can happen. You turn on the radio or you tune in to MTV (but more commonly now access YouTube ...), and suddenly you come across one of the most explosive mixture of singing skills, look magnet and a series of recoveries intelligent sound we have often heard, many years ago, and now the whole world had abandoned. Many were kidnapped months ago, from that sample speeded up "Funky Drummer" by James Brown (where we have already heard? In "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be" by Fine Young Cannibals, in "Waiting For That Day 'by George Michael and even in "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" by Sinead O'Connor ... the list is very long), from the clear and forceful voice asking us "Do you Recognize me?" and from that magical blend of electronics and strings that runs through the history of twenty years of radio hits, like Mark Ronson in less than no time decide to mess with "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack or with Soul II Soul's finest.
"Heaven" is the best you could propose Emeli Sandé as a business card, all accompanied with a video and an image suggestive that certainly can not go unnoticed: the singer, ex-medical student born to a Scottish mother and father of the Zambia has a face reminiscent of Etta James and bleached hair that conjure up another singer from the mixed blood and infectious smile - that Yazz that at the end of the eighties he taught in the radio and on the dance floor, that "the only way is up ". You could not see anything so pleasantly distinguishable from when Gabrielle began, another velvet voice of British soul that met our eyes with very short curly hair and a eye patch on the song "Dreams" - and even then it was convict sampling, that of "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman.

We have learned to know her better. LMFAO (whose first name was Adele, set aside not to be confused with his famous namesake who is collecting premiums on premiums) is not born from nothing, and the first to establish itself as an interpreter was also a good author for other singers, Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle. This was followed by two more singles, "Daddy" and "Next To Me", and also a series of collaborations - it is worth remembering that at least with Professor Green in "Read All About It", reached number one in England and revived in Italy, along with Dolcenera. The wait was great but we did not know, frankly, exactly what to expect from the first album of Emeli Sandé: it is already time to prepare for the revival of the nineties? Fortunately (or unfortunately) this is not the case. It would be too easy to fill "Our Version Of Events" tricks of magician recovering all the cliches of the decade, perhaps with a touch of jungle here and emulations house catching a Yamaha DX-7 there, and instead is a collection of songs as often well written and performed even better, although in some step the recipe is little bold and the whole can play more conventional than the artwork is able to suggest.

We are facing an album well anchored in the present and that is made for climbing the charts, and there is little doubt that this could happen. Perhaps the Virgin has clipped a little 'wings, eager to have in your "park artists" an immediate response to Atkins and ready to challenge in the heart of New York public lolita Lana Del Rey - Emeli but when he sings of love not made only with resentment, as the star of "21", and Lana has in common only the fact that it is co-author of their songs and the ability to mix with taste carpets strings and electronic beats. Actually there is a third point in common - the potential hit single "My Kind Of Love" also bears the signature of Emile Haynie, who has worked with its Lizzy Grant in "Born To Die" - but the territory in where the new star of Glasgow moves is different, sometimes rather more approachable to the first John Legend, the more authentic, which would recover the soul of the old school without trapping in traditionalism.
There is also a (nice) little 'Alicia Keys in the sketch of "Where I Sleep", vivid picture of a generation that would change the world but it is not certain that you have the means to do so, especially at a time when unemployment is of concern, and not coincidentally in "Hope" (just signed with the artist of "No One" and "Fallin '"). The love that moves mountains is a concept so dear in the declarations as romantic invocation of God: therefore open to interpretation the beautiful "Mountains", wrapped in a cloth and string supported by a drum machine button but accomplished.
Although the allegory of the circus are standing fatigue ("I'll be your clown on your favorite TV channel, my life is a circus that moves in a circle") Sandé in the "Clown" made amends with the lightness of a melody natural that develops itself, decorated by gentle piano arpeggios and a strong interpretation of the most engaging of the entire disc.

The game calls in "Daddy" is an intricate puzzle that stumbles into a rather obvious similarity with "Frozen" by Madonna, the incipit of the stanza as the atmosphere and in the lining of the electronic bridge (while the stamp Emeli seems chasing the most écorché Amy Winehouse, just sweetened with a teaspoon of honey orange blossom) and the entire middle section of "Our Version Of Events" - which lifts the explosion gospel of "Next To Me" - sounds forced, watered down with some mid-tempo too, bland and forgettable. "Breaking The Law", a lullaby on guitar, want to reveal his love for Joni Mitchell but in reality it just seems tedious, sketched and out of place.
Good intentions in "River", but the text is too abstract and throw in some incomprehensible to really get involved. "Maybe I'm too calm for you / maybe even noticed me no / But if you're too big to follow the rivers / how can you find the seas?" is the most cryptic you can listen to the days of "To Drink The Rainbow" by Tanita Tikaram. The soul-pop on tiptoe of "Suitcase" would look great in the repertoire of Gabrielle, and the aforementioned "Hope" (needless to say) is a solemn ballad full of hope - a new "Imagine" for the third millennium, even if the context in which it is immersed is irremediably different from that of the classic lennoniano. A close reading everything there is a sweet acoustic "Read All About It," without the rap and Professor Green with a simple piano accompaniment.

"Our Version Of Events" is the first work of a singer who has already proven to be much more than a good arrow to his bow. But do not expect a hard all along the lines of "Heaven" - better also slowly savor the nuances in each track. It is not a perfect debut - the impression is that at least two or three songs have the sole purpose of making number at the expense of a song like "Easier In Bed», which has been degraded to the level of b-side of the single " Heaven "- and after a promising start the repetition of certain figures in the text ("'ll move mountains for you, "repeated Emeli in" River ") and certain predictable melodic scaffolding (" Maybe ") or that leave little trace (" Lifetime " ) weigh what could have been a breath of fresh air that the light music "consumer" would have a desperate need.
British criticism has focused immediately on Emeli Sandé, which earned the critics 'award for the last Brit Awards: we give them plenty of time to grow and to dare a little' more. The potential is there and already we see the best episodes. There are four highly successful individual and at least three other pieces that could keep us company throughout 2012. Be satisfied.