Sarah Blacker’s latest album In Waves combines winsome rock band approaches with Blacker’s naturally beautiful voice and lyrical aplomb. As a singer-songwriter, Blacker has created something that could raise her profile among those who work in the national music scene. Big things will surely happen for Boston’s Blacker once she circulates this In Waves CD at her many CD Release parties.
Opening track “Way Like Water” finds Blacker rocking out with total abandon, an electric guitar leading her along with its rippling, grinding notes. Over her rocking band support, Blacker belts with considerate phrasing, knowing just when to let up the intensity for a moment before belting out her infectious chorus. She occasionally slows it down to coo coolly, beautifully. Her shifts in dynamics and tempo are uncannily on the mark, making this cut something that should find its way to radio real soon.
Title track “In Waves” is a peppy, mid-tempo rocker that Blacker introduces with her lovely, rhythmically precise cooing before using falsetto to sweeten her song further. Crisp electric guitar picking takes its time beneath her, peeling off another layer of emotion. Thematically, “In Waves” is about how life comes at us in waves of emotions, incidents, changes. Blacker brings this notion to life with her personal charm in a large way, infusing this track with so much emotion that one cannot miss its grandness, its significance to Blacker, and to the rest of this album.
Blacker takes it down low on “Exhale,” an easeful tune graced by gentle acoustic instruments and a dreamy soundscape. This singer showcases well what her voice can do in a laidback format. She coos as easily as she breathes, making a sweet joyful sustain out of thin air. She handles her verses with such delicacy and precision, it’s not funny. She makes the listener feel like she’s taking them by the hand and walking them through a gallery of images from her world. Blacker, here, pleases the ear while expressing large emotions, indicating the qualities of the best singer-songwriters.
“This Melody” travels along a charming, jaunty piano line reminiscent of The Beatles melodic bent. Blacker sings prettily while riding the peaks and valleys created by the piano, pleasantly shifting her tone as she goes along. This track is sure to grow on Blacker fans with each repeated listening, and there will be much repeated listening. So likable and personable, one cannot get enough of it.
“It Shows” lets Blacker play her ukulele, its brittle, candy-sweet notes alongside an old world accordion melody, creating a simple, sparse yet very expressive texture. Her vocal is like a layer of chocolate swirl over an already tasty ice cream treat. Stretching her sweet timbre over her dainty accompaniment, Blacker breathes tender life into this gentle ditty.
Blacker continues her introspective streak on “Ease The Burn.” Her sussurant vocal caresses her lyrics with warmth and tenderness, a voice floating over a moody cello, palpably slow percussion and low end. She rides the range of her vocal reach beautifully, artfully during her chorus, giving her song an epic feeling, describing emotional torture with smoke inhalation and burns as metaphors. Powerful stuff.
After a brief, interesting electric guitar “Interlude,” Blacker jumps right into her other potential radio hit, the appropriately titled “Breakout.” It’s a rocking, edgy electric guitar driven number that intrigues with the mood it conjures as it does its rock and roll thing. Blacker’s cooing chorus is irresistible, charming, and beautiful. She has a voice that expresses much at once. Here she sings over her own looped vocal track and the contrast between lead vocal and backing vocal is gripping. You just can’t stop listening.
Blacker slows down the tempo but turns up the emotional heat on “Hotel Halls.” This moody, introspective piece tells of the singer’s life on the road, staying inside unfamiliar rooms. Blacker conjures, simultaneously, feelings of loneliness and feelings of triumph over adversity. There’s much power in her vocal assertions and much feeling in her melancholy chorus. This one just takes off into the sky with tremendous lift coming from grand musical accompaniment, the touching lyrical theme, and Blacker’s soaring vocal and emotional range.
“These Here Are Wheels” is a hip, enticing, mid-tempo rocker. Blacker’s support band create a mellow vibe and a peppy beat beneath her while she emotes coolly, soulfully. She sounds earthy and real as she glides through her own lyrical twists and turns. This one tugs on the ear with a gravitational coolness that cannot be ignored.
“Oh My God” plays out with a jumpy drumbeat and an infectious rhythm guitar pulse. Blacker offers another hooky rock chorus wrapped up in her beauteous voice and personal charm. This one will have listeners tapping their toes, bobbing their heads to its peppy movements while Blacker tickles their ears with her girlish, angelic sweetness, a light, easy going, joyful personality that raise its pretty head at many unexpected moments. She’s a rocker chick and the nice girl next door in one.
“Undertow” glides in with a pretty electric guitar melody before Blacker does her sweet, tender vocal thing. Built around an unobtrusive bass pulse, Blacker’s voice here manages to tug on the ear while that low end intrigues with its magnetic allure. Over this platform Blacker sends her voice running along a sweet, engaging melody, a line of guitar percolations that sparkle with each note picked.
Blacker closes out her album with “Wisps And Watercolors.” At first, she utilizes her uke to create a sparse accompaniment that lets her voice breathe in a wide open space. It’s a lovely canvas that Blacker suddenly shifts into a grander soundscape during her sweeping chorus. Her voice jaunts nicely along a violin jousting. It’s a mix of good instrumentation and vocalizing to close out her album.
Blacker has created a definitive album of pop-rock music with a singer-songwriter sensibility. In Waves will soon be filling the airwaves of college and local radio stations while receiving highly positive reviews and album Of The Year nominations. Bravo.
The first CD Release Party for In Waves will take place this Saturday, May 2, 7:00 p.m. at The Press Room in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
[…] Waves’ also just received its first review on the Bill Copeland Music News […]