There's
a lot to like about Nessa Morgan's debut album. A lot of the so-called
r&b you hear these days is as shallow a version of that music form
as the rhinestone country artists are of theirs. All glam no substance.
This Sydney-raised Maori singer is the real deal. As the album title
suggests, the songs deal with love and relationships, as all good
songs should, but with an undertone of struggle, personally and
socially. Nessa might be new on record but she's seen enough of
life to say it and sing it with meaning. I don't like to say it,
but one thing we have to admit, Australia struggles with this kind
of music. Renee Geyer is the exception. Gotham Records had the sense
to take Nessa to America, under the supervision of Don Was, who
has worked with a wide range of artists, from the Rolling Stones
to Willie Nelson. He has an ability to zero in on each of his artists'
musical virtues. He gives Nessa a classic R&B/soul sound, not the
glossy shopfront window we hear from America's current stock of
wannabes. Presumably what might have also happened Nessa could also
have been teamed with the long list of 9 to 5 songwriting collaborators
on tap in America. Instead we get Nessa's first group of songs -
the ones that attracted Gotham and Don Was - fleshed out with additional
songs written with or by the likes of Don Walker, Rick Price and
Diesel, songwriters the Sydney-based and raised Nessa could relate
to and express herself with. We're hearing the natural Nessa, not
a made up one. The production is right, the songs are right and
that just leaves Nessa to wail and plead and seduce, the art of
the true r&b singer. (Gotham/BMG)
There's
a lot to like about Nessa Morgan's debut album. A lot of the so-called
r&b you hear these days is as shallow a version of that music form
as the rhinestone country artists are of theirs. All glam no substance.
This Sydney-raised Maori singer is the real deal. As the album title
suggests, the songs deal with love and relationships, as all good
songs should, but with an undertone of struggle, personally and
socially. Nessa might be new on record but she's seen enough of
life to say it and sing it with meaning. I don't like to say it,
but one thing we have to admit, Australia struggles with this kind
of music. Renee Geyer is the exception. Gotham Records had the sense
to take Nessa to America, under the supervision of Don Was, who
has worked with a wide range of artists, from the Rolling Stones
to Willie Nelson. He has an ability to zero in on each of his artists'
musical virtues. He gives Nessa a classic R&B/soul sound, not the
glossy shopfront window we hear from America's current stock of
wannabes. Presumably what might have also happened Nessa could also
have been teamed with the long list of 9 to 5 songwriting collaborators
on tap in America. Instead we get Nessa's first group of songs -
the ones that attracted Gotham and Don Was - fleshed out with additional
songs written with or by the likes of Don Walker, Rick Price and
Diesel, songwriters the Sydney-based and raised Nessa could relate
to and express herself with. We're hearing the natural Nessa, not
a made up one. The production is right, the songs are right and
that just leaves Nessa to wail and plead and seduce, the art of
the true r&b singer. (Gotham/BMG)