With not much to review at the time of writing I turn my attention to a couple of R&B releases, admittedly not my strongest suit.
I was attracted to this one by PR which talks about “some of the best R&B you're likely to hear” and “the next R&B queen of Scandinavia following acts like Lil Halima and Snoh Aalegra.” Well they definitely are top quality and are tough acts to follow so can Isabelle rise to the challenge?
Also her surname, which I thought for a second was the same as Katniss’ in The Hunger Games, but that’s Everdeen of course.
Isabelle is out of Trondheim, the northern city with a highly ranked music conservatoire that has hosted many of the artists who feature in NMR, and which specialises in jazz. Is there a bigger country for jazz in Europe than Norway? It seems to crop up everywhere. And it does here, well ever so slightly, along with pop and soul, in an eclectic mix influenced by her immersion in both classical jazz and soul music, the latter including influencers the likes of Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack.
Her forthcoming EP is concerned with ‘first love’ in all its manifestations, In this song she describes the moment when you realise you’ve found that one person you can share everything with, having perhaps taking them for granted beforehand.
It’s lush, sultry and sexy without being suggestive. Since I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day it occurs to me that it is the sort of song you could send in lieu of a card.
Alternatively, Isabelle could be a singing card, appearing when you’re least expecting it to put a smile on your face like the McDelivery girl.
And her words are cute. “It’s like I forget how to hold my breath before I dive into deep shit…”
'Focus on you' is out today 26th February (Monstera Records). Her first EP, ‘Internal Monologue’, will be released in June.
Photo Credit: Daniel Almås