Performance is an aspect of music that doesn’t crop up in the discussion of records as often as it perhaps should. It’s something, though, that is impossible to overlook when you’re dealing with ‘Sound of a Woman’, the debut by Canadian dance-pop star Kiesza.
Much of that is derived from the video for its lead single, Hideaway, a one-shot hipster musical that traversed the streets of Brooklyn and sent the song to the summit of the charts a few months ago. It showed Kiesza as a livewire presence, a fluid dancer with the sort of unbridled voice that’ll stop you in your tracks.
That energy is carried over to the full-length, where it knits together something of a potted history of ‘90s pop tropes, from hook-heavy house to reflective R&B. The hit arrives first up as a sort of blueprint for what follows, albeit one that sets a standard out of the reach of some of its successors on the tracklist.
No Enemiesz is another successful shot at an early-’90s club tune and a further canvas across which Kiesza displays some vocal dexterity, while The Love and Giant In My Heart hit home with a nostalgic thud. Vietnam, a percussive slow-burner, is the album’s melodic highlight.
When Kiesza and producer Rami Samir Afuni decide to slow things down, cracks appear. While So Deep has its woozy charms, the title track is a dud and Losin’ My Mind is quickly left in the dust of the album’s opening songs. The less said about a maudlin version of Haddaway’s What Is Love? the better, too.
There’s a sense that this is a record that knows precisely where it’s coming from, but one that points to an uncertain future. There are hooks here that suggest Kiesza will be able to shapeshift somewhere down the road, which is something that her prodigious talent as a performer perhaps demands. ‘Sound of a Woman’ is a decent start, but not the full story, it seems.
Kiesza Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu March 19 2015 - MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Fri March 20 2015 - LEEDS O2 Academy Leeds
Sat March 21 2015 - GLASGOW O2 ABC
Mon March 23 2015 - BIRMINGHAM Institute
Tue March 24 2015 - LONDON O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Wed March 25 2015 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
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