Alyssa Graham's "Lock, Stock & Soul"
A press release that accompanies Alyssa Graham's new "Lock, Stock & Soul" quotes the singer as saying she was tricked into doing "scratch vocals" (basically, trial vocals that she expected would be overdubbed or re-recorded) for her new "Lock, Stock & Soul," and her producer, Craig Street, used those recordings as the final vocals.
That's easy to believe: Her delivery certainly feels unconventionally informal, for better and worse.
The American singer shifts from a more jazz-oriented bent to a more retro-folk style on her new release, and Street gives her a rich playground, ranging from acoustic mellowness and ginger rhythms to vaguely Italian-Brazilian pop surrealism to soft rock tinged with blues and jazz. Apart from the odd protracted stretch and an occasional feeling of inertness, the arrangements aren't a downfall on "Lock, Stock & Soul."
The problems are all connected to Graham's "scratch vocals." Her sedated declarations blur the beauty of "I Know," and her ghostly presence on the title track only conveys remoteness. On "He's a Lover," she sounds as if she's cautiously picking her way through an aural river of molasses, and her stilted delivery on "Round & Round" is simply disconcerting.
Perhaps Street intended the singer to channel a disaffected chanteuse, but on these problematic tracks Graham doesn't sound chic or seductive. She sounds amateurish and tentative.
Yet there are more rewarding times on "Lock, Stock & Soul." Graham projects childlike naivete in the piano-based, '70s-sounding pop of "Exploded View," and she musters a tantalizing, urgent intimacy for "Ain't My Kind of Boy." Also, her stark whispers are attention grabbing on "'Til My Heart Quakes," and both "I'll Stay With You" and "You're the One" offer an entrancing bit of grace.
Unfortunately, closer "Tidal Wave" makes a yawn-inducing final impression as Graham sings, "Tidal wave carry me tonight to where my lover lies across the sea." Ironically, her impact could barely produce a faint ripple.
Overdubs would have done wonders.
Rating: 3 stars (out of five)
© 2012, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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