A few months ago I was listening to Joni Mitchell and bemoaning the lack of female singers around to take up her wonderful mantle and then I was blessed with Raina Rose and her fantastic long player Endless End Of False Starts. Now it seems I have been smiled on again as Christina Courtins self titled debut fell onto my welcoming lap.
Opening track Green Jay starts off with a little toy piano and then her wonderful and beautiful voice soars into the room. It is a very mellowed song with little viola and pedal steel strokes. This opening song is as good as Joni Mitchell and I am a big fan of Ms Joni, so I do not say that lightly. It is pure and perfect. Bundah is a sparsely produced song of such simplistic beauty that you will press repeat. Her single Foreign Country has the feel of a good old time country song with its acoustic, pedal steel and organ piping. Her vocal yet again is perfect and the level of this album is scary, there must be a lull soon. Not with Hedonistic Paradise thats for sure. Sounding like a redeemable KT Tunstall she just lifts you with her heartfelt vocal of her own simple but wonderful lyrics. The toy piano is gain utilised brilliantly. Mulberries is piano, vocal and perfection, nothing else to say on that. Both February and Laconia have lives of their own as they sit uneasily with the rest of the album. Dont get me wrong; theyre fantastic songs but just from a different mood. Her vocal is strained, silent and beautiful in the former as the strings rise to a shivering chorus and in the latter she is cold and aloof and mildly angry in a song whose musical changes turn your head slightly. Definite highlights and a mini journey within the album itself. One Man Down is another slice of country roots perfection. Its hard to find different words of praise for her. Rainy is a song that showcases her wonderful ability as a orchestratal arranger, it is awash with wonderful string arrangements and they take centre stage for once over her lovely vocals. The album ends with the epic and (again) nigh on perfect Unzipped, a song wrapped with beauty from its opening second to its trembling finale. And so it ends, one of the best reasons to have ears.
Its nothing short of immense how beautiful this girls debut album is. Its up there with Joni Mitchell or anyone else for that matter. If people dont fall in love with Christina Courtin then I may just become a hermit. BUY IT, its perfect.