Sam de la Haye - England
by Lisa Torem
published: 21 / 4 / 2012
Label:
Sam de La Haye
Format: CD
intro
Imaginatively arranged, but lyrically flawed debut solo album from London-born singer-songwriter and pianist, Sam de la Haye
Sam de la Haye lives in London, but was born in Jersey. She can be seen playing flawless piano and singing at the Savoy and other London hot spots currently and has developed an impressive following, which includes Ray Davies, whom she supported at the Royal Festival Hall Meltdown Festival and with whom she worked to complete a children’s play for The Great British Festival. Her debut, 'England', boasts her expertise on the keys. She confidently tackles intricate patterns, which become haunting with her pure vocals. At times her piano recalls vintage Tori Amos; parallel fourths and fifths thrash like Atlantic waves, and the most imaginative arrangements show after the first couple of numbers. She sings about faith, loss and loneliness, but an actual story line doesn’t truly exist until she examines an affair with a married man. Then she does an about face and the piano gets replaced by an old timey, guitar-based arrangement. Her angelic voice morphs into that of a bar room chanteuse as she sings about a broken man. A mesmerizing introduction on the subsequent ballad leads to an expose on a mannequin. Then this character takes over: “Lemon boy picks strawberries in my field/I don’t mind this lemon boy, he’s hungry” is the line, which stems from the most intriguing instrumental arrangement on the record. De la Haye demonstrates a lot of versatility with her vocals and her piano work is consistently dreamy, technically impressive and well structured. That said, once her lyrical aptitude catches up to her vocal and instrumental abilities, she’ll have the world by a string.
Track Listing:-
1 The Mannequin2 Lemon Boy
3 For You
4 Itsy Bitsy
5 The Affair
6 England
7 Horseback Riding
8 Moon
9 Innocence
10 No Trouble
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/samanthadelahayehttp://www.samdelahaye.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/samdelahaye
https://www.youtube.com/user/musicsamdelahaye
https://plus.google.com/110924626620250995836
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_de_la_haye
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