Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
In 2008, Edmonton’s Colleen Brown released her debut record Foot in Heart independently. Now, two years later and after receiving accolades and air time on Canadian radio, Emm Gryrner’s Dead Daisy Records is set to re-release the record. And it’s a good thing Gryner took notice, as Foot in Heart is well deserving of a second, and more high profile campaign.
The album’s first few moments aren’t what you’d expect, as ‘Fantastic Feeling’ opens with an odd drum beat over piano, into drum stick clicks. And at just the moment you question what the hell is going on, the song evens out and serves as a great lead-in to the record, even if said intro doesn’t seem to fit into the song at all. This ends up being the singular peculiarity on Foot in Heart, a record with a consistent and distinctive pop-folk feel.
Following a first trip through the remainder of the record, it comes as little surprise that Brown cites Heart as one of her influences. Many of the record’s stand out tracks hold a distinctive resemblance to the famous ‘70s sister act, but none more so than ‘Man, Woman & Child,’ which, with the addition of fantastic backing harmonies from Amy Van Keeken, provides the record’s best vocal performance. Beyond that, solo piano effort ‘Pursuit,’ ‘New Perfume,’ and ‘Love You Baby’ stand out as some of the album’s best. The latter of those is the record at its most fun. An upbeat, toe-tapping track, it also boasts one of those music videos that one can only described as strangely hypnotizing and even received (Canadian) Super Bowl XLIV commercial air time as part of a CBC Radio 2 commercial. And if that doesn’t fall into the category of “more high profile campaign,” who knows what does.
