K.T. Tunstall - "Eye to the Telescope"
(EMI U.K., 2006)
You may have heard K.T. Tunstall and not know it. Her single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" has been getting airplay on VH1 and on Muncie station WLBC for weeks, but her name doesn't roll off the tongue which makes it difficult to recall. I spent the good portion of last week singing the chorus ("no, no, you're not the one for me ...") with reckless abandon, assuming it was a new song by a favorite new artist of mine, Brandi Carlile. Amazingly, however, I learned the song was by Tunstall, a scottish folk-singer of much international regard, who seems to have stumbled on the grainy vocal style of Carlile by accident.
Regardless, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" is an interesting introduction to an eclectic album. Eye to the Telescope is difficult to put into a category. There's the bluesy Katie Melua-ish track "Another Place To Fall" with an ethereal backdrop of guitar and bass, which contains another ready-for-radio chorus. Then she'll hit you with a straight up folk number like "Miniature Disasters" reminescent of Fiona Apple without the piano -- particularly when one considers the complex arrangement. So where do you place this? And by what quirk of fate is it actually succeeding in America? Perhaps the radio powers that be are on to the fact that musical creativity's been on an upswing heading into 2006.
However, the album as a whole lacks a concrete throughline. All the songs are exceptional on their own merit, but the eclectic nature of Tunstall's songwriting makes the album a difficult one to listen to straight through. It's like a greatest hits album -- a lot of hook, which brings you in, but in the end there's something missing that would give the songs merit as an album. That said, Eye to the Telescope should serve as a respectable introduction of Tunstall's sound to an intrigued American audience. While this one doesn't resonate as a complete album, there are some exceptional tracks here that should give the material a long shelf life. I look forward to hearing what Tunstall can do in the future.
You may have heard K.T. Tunstall and not know it. Her single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" has been getting airplay on VH1 and on Muncie station WLBC for weeks, but her name doesn't roll off the tongue which makes it difficult to recall. I spent the good portion of last week singing the chorus ("no, no, you're not the one for me ...") with reckless abandon, assuming it was a new song by a favorite new artist of mine, Brandi Carlile. Amazingly, however, I learned the song was by Tunstall, a scottish folk-singer of much international regard, who seems to have stumbled on the grainy vocal style of Carlile by accident.
Regardless, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" is an interesting introduction to an eclectic album. Eye to the Telescope is difficult to put into a category. There's the bluesy Katie Melua-ish track "Another Place To Fall" with an ethereal backdrop of guitar and bass, which contains another ready-for-radio chorus. Then she'll hit you with a straight up folk number like "Miniature Disasters" reminescent of Fiona Apple without the piano -- particularly when one considers the complex arrangement. So where do you place this? And by what quirk of fate is it actually succeeding in America? Perhaps the radio powers that be are on to the fact that musical creativity's been on an upswing heading into 2006.
However, the album as a whole lacks a concrete throughline. All the songs are exceptional on their own merit, but the eclectic nature of Tunstall's songwriting makes the album a difficult one to listen to straight through. It's like a greatest hits album -- a lot of hook, which brings you in, but in the end there's something missing that would give the songs merit as an album. That said, Eye to the Telescope should serve as a respectable introduction of Tunstall's sound to an intrigued American audience. While this one doesn't resonate as a complete album, there are some exceptional tracks here that should give the material a long shelf life. I look forward to hearing what Tunstall can do in the future.
posted by Jonathan Sanders @ 7:27 AM
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