Anna Lea Pudan - Victim Of Love

Hear The Track Here

Second time around for Canadian singer/songwriter Anna Lea Pudan and she - and I - are probably both hoping that this review may go a little better than The Long Road (September 2007. See, I saw nothing wrong whatsoever in her claim to be a singer/songwriter, merely in the way it was presented. As we all become all too painfully aware first impressions count even more on the internet than real life, so what we release as 'musicians' numbers us in the eyes of our listeners more than anything else. One of the reasons that the HUGE unsigned underground scene has such a bad name in the RW is because of the often unprofessional way it is delivered to us. I'm not talking about anything particularly technical here mind, we all have to work with audio limitation, what I am talking about is presentation. Having the basic framework of a song and singing above it nmay well prove that you are a good songwriter, but only the full deal will establish you as an artist.

Now, let me put this soapbox away.....

Unfortunately Anna did not leave me a link for the track she wanted, so I'll choose my own. Victim Of Love it what I came up with because I was sure as heck not going to review a Christmas tune already :D Jazz is the flavour here, and smooth blue jazz at that; a genre that to my ears suits Anna's sultry vocal style. Although - it has to be said - there is no denying that musically and professionally Anna sounds like the newcomer to this music malarkey, but she can turn in a reasonable performance as this track displays - given the style and delivery. Stylistically it's a little fuller in sound than The Long Road, and that just cannot be a bad thing at all.

It's also the kind of jazzy blues that I really like which helps me to get over the shortcomings of the track itself (major hum problem, an odd sharpness on the guitar at times, and a very lacklustre sax sound). The sax sections are paced exactly right, the notes dripping out of the horn with the speed and consistency of molasses (Ed: a very sticky sticky thing). How I wish I could hear this with the right audio treatment. Still, this is what we have got and again Victim of Love shows that Anna can write good tunes, and even sing them with some conviction too, especially on tracks like this which she obviously feels most comfortable with. If that's all she wants, then I guess she is doing as well as she can given the limitations she is working under.

Cool jazzy blues though...