Play 90 second soundbite of 'Carry Me Home' @ 'CD quality'
Live and uncluttered but beautifully proportioned, 'The Live Sessions' is about as genuine as it gets - and it works wonderfully well! Strangely though, if this EP had been given the full studio production treatment it would still have worked but I actually dread to think how good it would have turned out coz in its stripped down form this is elegant, powerful and tantalising - and absolutely superb (so fully 'cooked' doesn't even bare thinking about!!).
Born in the north-east of India, Karen David unsurprisingly brings plenty of eastern influences to her western-ised 'pop' or, as her press pack puts it, 'exotic pop'. Cleverly, David doesn't overdo the Indian-esque, rather, she balances it superbly with orchestral and acoustic instrumentation and allows the east to augment the west, and visa versa, with stunning results. Karen David has a beautifully, quite sexy sounding voice which she effortlessly delivers with silky precision and respectful emotion as she seamlessly flirts with R&B, flits into pure pop and flows across nu-jazz. The only disappointing thing here is that there's just five tracks; all originals, all quite stunning - but just too few!!
With genre blurring qualities and gentle emotional undercurrents that belie its powerful, heart-felt core, 'The Live Sessions EP' by Karen David is a massively impressive work and hopefully just a great appetite whetter for bigger things to come - and surely just the start for this talented songstress. Quite breathtaking - excellent!!
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