Album: Laura Critchley - Sometimes I (2007)









Another interesting story to this one. Back in the summer of 2006 (a particularly hot summer if I recall) and the days of MySpace, (anyone remember that) I found out about this upcoming artist Laura Critchley. I can't remember exactly how but it may have been through Lucie Silvas' page however one feature I remember very well was the amount of customisation one could apply to their page and one such feature was the ability to put up music tracks for others to listen to. This proved very useful for new artists to try and get their music out there (before the days of Bandcamp) and I had discovered a few through MySpace this way! I believe Lily Allen came to success thanks to MySpace aswell. Looking back I think the limit was four songs for them to upload and you could also download them which is what I had done with the very talented Laura Critchley who I'm talking about here. I enjoyed the tracks so much that I had messaged her on MySpace to congratulate her on a fine achievement and that she sounded exactly like Lucie Silvas to which she replied "I'm not sure about exactly the same but thank you." I put my comment to her down to being rather smitten (well I was 17 at the time.) Throughout the summer I had played those tracks along with much more music as I was really getting into my music back then but as time had passed, I had forgotten about them.

Some time later, (we are talking years here, I'm not sure how many) I was browsing in my local HMV when I found Laura Critchley's debut album 'Sometimes I' sitting on the shelf and it did indeed contain all four of the songs I had heard on her MySpace page. The memories came flooding back and it wasn't long after when I purchased the record. What I noticed first of all was how the tracks I had been used to hearing particularly 'Shoulder to Lean on,' differed on the album which was disconcerting at first but after a while, still an enjoyable track just different. I have to say though that I absolutely love the album and can listen to it all the way through with no skipping necessary. From the opening track 'Today's Another Day' which gets the record started perfectly, all the way through to the end, it really is a great debut. With the passing of time, I had come to realise the similarities with Lucie Silvas weren't as close as I previously thought. She shares a similar vocal to those of Leann Rimes as there is definitely a Country feel to some of the tracks but the general tone of the album for me sound similar to Lucie Silvas' work. All told though, Laura very much has her own distinct style here and she deserves to do well as a result. At time of writing this review, this album is in it's tenth year and to date, is Laura's only release which is a shame as there is definitely more in her to see more albums. Looking at Wikipedia/Amazon, this was released in the November of 2007 and therein lies the one problem for me. This is a very summery record so to release it in time for Christmas seems all wrong to me and it would have been a perfect June release. From what I can tell, there was a single released in the Spring and another just before the Summer which is great but the album should have followed hot on the heels of that second single. Instead, the third single released just prior to the album in November with the final single released the following Summer. A strange decision and that would have hurt the sales which is a real shame. Wheather that was the reason for her stopping there I don't know but I believe she has done the occasional bit of work here and there notably providing backing vocals for Tom Jones.

For my recommendations, I would say if you like Lucie Silvas, Corinne Bailey Rae with a bit of Leann Rimes thrown in and enjoy listening to cheery, uplifting, summery feeling music then you can't go far wrong with this one. Hopefully the CD is still available or at the very least on iTunes but I'm sure it would be.
To think, I may never have discovered this wonderful album from Laura Critchley had it not been for MySpace and that would have been a real shame as it is one CD I am so pleased to have in my collection. In fact, I may just listen to it now!

Thank you for reading!

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