OFFICIAL: http://www.gracefreeman.net/
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by Stephen Bailey, posted by blog admin
Grace
Freeman’s first solo collection Shadow includes eleven songs largely adhering
to Americana and singer/songwriter influences while still taking opportunities
to branch out at key points. The two primary instruments on Shadow are acoustic
guitar and piano, but the six string is far and away the defining tool for
bringing Freeman’s songs to sonic life. It is balanced against Freeman’s
singing in a very artful and proportional way – one never gets the feeling that
a choice to highlight any one element at the expense of another ever entered
into the equations for recording this album. Instead, Shadow has bearing and a
satisfying completeness that’s difficult to find in modern releases. Freeman
may be very young, but her musical aesthetics and songwriting vision harken
back to an earlier era and have mastered the sort of fundamentals required if
the work is intended to endure.
It
begins in a memorable way with the weighty statements of both “Oliver” and the
title song “Shadow”. The former is the first of many acoustic guitar powered
tracks and has a dark, mournful air surrounding its guitar work. Freeman’s
voice doesn’t opt for doubling down on that mood and, instead, positions
herself as a foil to the musical mood with ethereal vocals that will touch all
but the most cynical listeners. The title song has a more forceful spirit
thanks to welcoming drums and bass for the first time on the release, but
Freeman exerts her vocal strength more here than we hear in the opener. “Trying
to Say Goodbye” is, arguably, the most commercially minded tune on Shadow, but
this isn’t an insult. Freeman approaches this sort of variation the same way
she treats any other songwriting – her interests lie with recording the best
possible performance rather than groveling for widespread attention.
“Blue-Eyed
Boy” visits some of the aforementioned Americana roots you find after digging
deep enough into Freeman’s core sound. Freeman delivers one of her most deeply
felt vocals for this release and she effortlessly glides through the verses. We
are back in nominally more modern settings with the song “Another Long Night”
and there’s certainly quite a contrast between the near angelic vocal delivery
and Freeman’s despairing lyrical content. It’s one of the album’s loneliest
moments. The deliberate and slowly evolving melody of “Muddy Puddles” gives
listeners a chance to focus on the song’s lyrical content and relax into the
song’s seamless changes. Piano returns on the song “God Forbid” and her avowed
influence from singer/songwriter Regina Spektor is obvious, but never painfully
so. This remains recognizably Freeman’s song from beginning to end and the
frame of reference established by the similarities only serves to make the
track more familiar. Shadow is a personal and intensely creative journey that
rewards the listener in every song.
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