Review: Lianne La Havas

First of all, I'm just going to say that I chose this album to review because it is honestly one of my favourite albums of all time.  Despite the lessening importance of vocal ability in popular music (as I discussed in my last blog post), finally there is an artist with astounding vocal ability and songwriting talent being played on primetime radio.

The tracklist to 'Is your love big enough?', the debut album by Lianne La Havas, is full of a range of musical moods, with a soft tone running through that makes the whole album easy to listen to.

  Opening track 'Don't wake me up' is possibly my favourite song on the album. The acapella beginning is the perfect start to the album, and clearly displays her vocal range. Another great song from the album, in my opinion, is 'Age' - more of an upbeat sounding track, although the lyrics do contradict that slightly.

One negative to the album is the repetitive nature of some of the songs - title track 'Is your love big enough?', while vocally impressive, is quite repetitive which can make it hard to listen to over and over again.

Some of the most beautifully written songs include 'Lost and found', 'Au Cinéma', 'Gone' and 'Elusive'. Each song has a calming quality and, each time I listen, I discover a different part to the song that I hadn't heard before.

Overall, although the songs may not be the get-up-and-dance-around-your-bedroom type, the lyrics are beautiful and La Havas is vocal perfection.

*****



The rise of the autotune

While many artists have escaped the ear-bleeding autotune, the recent charts have been littered with it. Vocal talent has been largely replaced by machinery - and the mass market have been lapping it up!

In my opinion, artists such as Ke$ha are cheating the public out of their hard-earned money. By creating a fake vocal ability, they are also blocking the way for truly talented vocalists who are working 24/7 to get any form of recognition.

On the other hand, vocals are not the only aspect to a song; if the artist is involved in other creative processes such as writing or producing the song, then that's fair enough. The problem comes when the 'artist' is not involved in any creative aspect of the song whatsoever - if good looks are the only quality they possess, they should try out modelling rather than clogging up the music industry.

I have more respect for music producers such as David Guetta who don't feel the need to put their own vocals on their tracks and rising musicians who write, produce and sing without autotune.

What do you think?



15-year old artist Birdy has a beautiful
voice and has never used autotune.

Welcome...

Well, since this is my first blog, it's going to be a pretty short post while I find my way around. I chose Music and society as my first topic; simply because it's something that interests me.

Don't let my terribly unimaginative title fool you - I will be blogging about all genres of music, from The Beatles to My Chemical Romance to Justin Bieber. Trust me, I won't be afraid to say my opinion!

Watch this space.
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