RIYL: Evanescence, Vanessa Carlton, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift
If you always loved Amy Lees’ Evanescence ballads but couldn’t take the harder stuff, stop reading this right now, make your way to Amazon.com, do your best to maneuver past the 3G Kindle ads (Nook users represent!), and lookup Cheryl B. Engelhardt. Engelhardt certainly has Amy Lees’ formula down to the T, and over most of the 12 tracks on her second full length Craving The Second, she seems perfectly happy to let it show.
Engelhardt, a piano based singer-songwriter from Harlem, NYC, crafts earnest piano pop with soaring choruses and lyrics about trying to find your way and retain self-identity after heartbreak. After leaving her scuba-diving government job to pursue music, Engelhardt wrote jingles and music for websites before deciding to dedicate herself fully to a solo career.
The albums standout track is the opener “Keep”, which made it to the Top 12 in the first annual New York Songwriter’s Circle contest out of over 4,000 entries. This acclaim seems well deserved, as the song confidently builds from gently yearning piano to a soaring chorus with splashes of lightly distorted guitar as Engelhardt sings “I think I’m close but I cant be sure/ So I’ll play it safe and I’ll runs some more. Don’t let this get too deep/ Cause I’ve got my soul to keep.”
Unfortunately, “play it safe” pretty accurately describes most of theremaining tracks, as the choruses reliably soar into Evanescence territory again and again, making the lines between each song blur abit. While the verses can be engaging, the album would be well served by some more substantial hooks to keep them from fading from memory so fast. Some tracks start with a more danceable rhythm that seems promising but fades far too quickly. With the huge push of dance music and Euro disco into mainstream pop lately, from Rihanna to DavidGuetta and Deadmau5, Engelhardt would be wise to follow suit and ask Stella exactly how it was she got her groove back.
Deeper into the album, “Wait” is a welcome departure that finds a heavily Autotuned and a cappella Engelhardt self-harmonizing ala Imogen Heap or Frou Frou. She handily pulls it off with her stellar voice, but while “Wait” manages to be moving it seems more high-tech vocal experiment than substantive musical statement. That being said, Engelhardt has some truly impressive pipes, (not at all pitchy, dawg), and like ‘06 Cambria Pinot Noir, she can only improve with age.
—————————
More Information
—————————
http://www.myspace.com/cherylbengelhardt
http://www.cbemusic.com
