I was only given a total of three songs in which to review for this young up and coming songstress. I have to admit I am not a fan of reviewing unfinished work – but what the artist wants, that is what the artist gets. I can tell that there is a lot of potential here. Her voice is very well utilized in the three tracks that I was able to listen to. I do not know, however, how wise it is to use electronica instrumentation. It overpowers a lot of the vocals and just sounds disjointed. Some of the instrumentation could have been “real” but it was hard to tell due to the produced value of it. The guitar work on forever & always (real or not) was pretty rockin. The drums, however, were just ugly sounding in an otherwise good tune.
Victoria’s voice is a throw-back style that you would be more accustomed to hearing in the 40’s blues scene. It has the deep, rich quality that makes you want to listen to her – to stare at her sing her songs. The issue, again, is the instrumentation. Though very laid back in this offering it is still enough to be irritating. It sounded somewhat hollow against it all and that can ruin the overall feeling and sound in general. It is hard to overlook such inadequacies.
The last track, “A Friend Like You”, has some of the most generic electronic drum stuff I have ever heard. The lyrics were good – her voice was on top again. I just really, really hate electronic instruments on this kind of record. I don’t know if her budget was such that she could only afford and electronic guitar and a cheap mixer – it really is a shame.
All in all the album needs to be completed. I would enjoy hearing more from her and I hope – I really DO hope that they stop using electronic instrumentation and go for the real stuff because the difference could be night and day. I could honestly say that I would enjoy it a lot more than I have. I spent too much time trying to get over the poor instrumentation to concentrate on the vocals. There is no excuse to not find some good studio musicians looking to just play and get on a record. Find them – anywhere. They really are needed. If you are into R&B and some Blues then I would definitely be on the lookout for Victoria Carter.
—————————
More Information
—————————
http://www.toricarter.com
