Kat Parsons - Framing Caroline

  by John Clarkson

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label: .
Format: CD

intro

23 year old country pop singer-songwriter Kat Parsons' debut album 'Framing Caroline' is unfortunately a record that does not equal all of its parts. The daughter of both a Viennese opera house st

23 year old country pop singer-songwriter Kat Parsons' debut album 'Framing Caroline' is unfortunately a record that does not equal all of its parts. The daughter of both a Viennese opera house star and an American keyboardist and singer, the Maryland raised Parsons is a remarkably gifted and diverse talent. On this first recording she proves herself equally adapt at singing both soft ballads and more upbeat rockers, and uses her gymnastic, dynamic voice to strikingly convey a wide gamut of emotions and moods from the lovelorn to lovestruck, from despair to joy and jubilance. Her lyrics brim with a similar passion and sense of vitality and energy. Breezy opener 'Masses' captures all the adolescent uncertainty and insecurity of a girl, the younger Parsons perhaps, desperate to create her own individuality and to place her own distinctive mark on the world, but unsure how. The reflective, resigned ballad 'Two Different Hearts' meanwhile chronicles beautifully the failed communication and slow burn fall-out between two lovers who have once meant everything to each other, while the feisty and humorous 'Little Words' is a clever play on words around that well worn phrase "I Love You", which has Parsons, aware of its cliche, resultingly swithering whether she can tell her boyfriend that she loves him or not. Although one can not fault the consistently first rate Parsons at any level, she is, however, let down by a poor production. The album upon record company insistence was rehearsed with a band consisting largely of session musicians in a day, and then recorded in its entirety upon the next. It distinctly suffers as a result.'Framing Caroline' musically works best in its gentlest moments, such as 'Wonder', a Chrissie Hynde style paean to a long lost love, which finds Parsons accompanied simply by a lightly fluttering piano,. Too often though it comes across as a something of a hotch potch, with the individual members of the hastily assembled band coming across as much of a muchness and stodgily indistinct from each other. It is not a bad album by any means, but one which, if producer Ralph Covert and Parsons, who generally plays shows acoustically on her own, had been allowed more time to develop and expand arrangements, would have been far better. It seems, however, that Parsons has learnt a lot from this. She is currently working on an as-yet-untitled second album, which she is recording at a far slower and more leisurely pace. Hopefully that will prove to be a more worthy endorsement of her undoubtedly rich talents.

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