|
There comes a time in the lives of many celebrity children
when they try their hand at their parent's claim to fame. In
some instances, the child just rides on the clout of their parents
due to the fact that they are painfully and quite obviously
not cut out to follow in the same career path as their parent.
In other cases, they have the talent to shine despite who their
parents are. Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of Billy Joel,
is currently taking on such an endeavor. With her first official
release, an EP titled Sketches, Joel proves a little,
but the question is if she proves enough to shine on her own.
From the initial listening to her voice, it is hard to tell
that Joel has unique talent. Slightly rusty sounding, her voice
is strong, but there is nothing that really captivates the audience.
Fluctuating between a jazzy and soulful sound, Joel belts and
vocalizes as she skips through notes in her songs. Her voice
remains good, but is lacking the top coating and sheen of glitter
and glamour; thus, making them rather predictable.
The chord changes, progressions, and modulations are all flat
within her music. Someone slightly knowledgeable about music
can easily see where her music is headed. It's generic and if
her goal is to sound like many other predecessors, she succeeded
while her originality falters. Lyrics such as "I've got
an f***king problem with authority" just make her look
like an angst ridden teenager trying to find the hippest way
to piss of an adult.
Despite all of these problems, Joel is not completely incapable
of producing a good record. The problem lies in the mere fact
that she's not thinking creatively enough to produce something
that is not a standard carbon copy kind of album. She's got
a basis, but the casing she's trying to fit it into just doesn't
work for her. Her music's tendency towards a juvenile sound
is evidence of this. Joel needs to scrap this idea and try again
to really achieve a rightful artist's status.
-Teresa Moreno
Track Listing:
1. The Heart Of Me
2. Now It's Gone
3. Don't Let It Bring You Down
4. The Revolution Song
5. Resistance
6. Song Of Yesterday
Check out
more reviews
 Talk
Back
e-mail the chief
Like this article?
e-mail
it to a friend!
|
Alexa
Ray Joel
