Paula - I Could Be

Hear The Track Here

Second track this month from the blog come from the lovely Paula O'Brien known more simply as Paula. A completely new name to me, I admit, but I'm just one teeny little guy battling a tsunami of tracks innit?? Anyway, Paula is a ' singer-songwriter / piano/ keyboards' thingie and her list of influences gives you an indication of how high her bar is set but, as normal, the proof is in the eating - or in this case the listening. I Could Be is, according to her initial email to me an electro-pop song and I'm always game for some of that. One of my favourite Soundclick artists right now - Wake Of Destruction - does a great job of breathing life into that genre, but does Paula? I know I rag on MySpazz constantly but it still nonetheless has some very commendable musicians and, I'm glad to say, Paula is definitely one worth paying attention to.

Regular readers will already know that I am woman crazy, and not for the usual scurrilous reasons. Fact is, I absolute adore good female singers and I've never made any secret of it and I do love to hear a clear, clean voice and - more than anything else - Paula has a voice to remember. Not because there is anything that startling about it or her but because she (or her producer) know exactly how to bring out the tone and richness of her voice. That's actually a lot rarer than you think but I do think it is made easier by the structure and arrangement of the song, which is as clean and bright as the vocals. It isn't, unfortunately, without its little flubs but that's a small price to pay for a) a good tune and b) a memorable performance.

I was living in New York City in the late 1980's when that city has so many female musician/songwriters at work it fair boggled the mind. I had the pleasure of working with a lot of these artists, some of them very successfully indeed and I get the same sort of vibe from Paula. Here is a musician and songwriter who has a clear sense of what she does best, and the technical capacity to realise it. Certainly someone to be keeping an eye on methinks, and no doubt I will be. Having said that, I Could Be is a tad on the long side (for an electro-pop song), an even tadder bit too slow and - for my ears - a bit thin once you get used to it. What really sealed that thought was living with the track. While it's sufficiently good enough to attract attention it won't turn heads. There's no doubt she has it in her though, hence the watchful eye.

Tasteful clean electropop and exactly the right voice to sing it. Highly Recommended.