Lauren Harris - Your Turn

Wow. That’s some build up, Kerrang magazine. “The lungpower and poise to roam the heartland of American rock radio”, they’ve apparently said. Add that to the fact that Lauren is the daughter of Iron Maiden founding member Steve Harris, and the expectations are huge. So, upon listening, I expected to be blown away by an old-style rock and roll tune, and in essence, what I heard, is a tired-sounding, lacklustre radio-friendly single. Although there’s nothing wrong with the song, it definitely has an air of ‘haven’t I heard this as the theme tune to a teen drama’, as well as an uncomfortable American edge, which is at odds with the build up as the “UK’s original rock chick”. By halfway through, the faux-rock guitars become boring and her vocal starts to sound a bit tinny. I don’t know if she plays any instruments herself, but she’s credited as the fourth songwriter on this single, so I assume she has some input into that. If this is the type of music she wanted to be making then, I don’t see anything that’s wrong with it, but it seems wrong to have presented herself in this way. It doesn’t seem enough to market yourself as something like a new female rock superstar without having any actual goods to back it up with. Yeah, she looks good, yeah, her dad is uber-famous, but her music? Adequate. All right. Not bad, if you’ve run out of CDs or you’re bored with the look of your iPod playlist. ‘Your Turn’ is basically nothing special. And that’s disappointing, because I think if she removed the pop-style tone to the song, and gave it a harder edge, then she could be on to a winner. It’s definitely not the Donnas or Paramore, as she’s been compared to – It’s not even as edgy as Avril Lavigne. If she’s aiming for a Radio 1 style single, then she’s probably done the right thing here, but if she wanted something more credible, I think we should all phone her dad, and ask him to have a quiet word.