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Elly Roberts reviews

Songbirds: Wake Up Call

Distributed by
Liberty/EMI

February 2008

Rating: 10/10

Amy, Flick and Lynette. Three lovelies, who can sing.

Wake Up Call should be taken as the title suggests, especially for the opposition. Forget your Girls Aloud and Sugababes, because these English roses are set to give their pop counterparts a run for their money. Given regular rotation on BBC Radio 2, and championed by Terry Wogan, the trio have also been wowing fans around the UK.

It should be considered as radio-friendly pop with that rare thing - credibility. For the real music fan, its best listened to on a pair of cans (headphones). With the production and delightful arrangements deliberately stripped back, it allows the girls to shine, though opening track The Weatherman…makes them feel blue. It introduces their razor sharp individual and collective talents, bringing back memories of Eva Cassidy and Joni Mitchell.

Lazy Sunday Morning sounds like a spruced-up'60s ballad, which it isn’t of course. Its highlight are the soaring three-part harmonies to die for. Leaning heavily on the contemporary American country songbook deployed by the likes of say The Dixie Chicks, they create more gorgeousness on Take Me As You Find Me. The song warns her lover: "The funny ways I’ll never change / That make me seem a little strange / You gotta take me as you find me, oh".

Of all the songs on offer, Show Me A Sign showcases their undisputable vocal skill, full of honeyed harmonies as they try to tease out a sign of love. Country shuffle Butterflies and Rainbows again has a tasty '60s throwback.

It’s clear the gals want to bring sunshine and warmth into our lives. And how.

File under: There’s nothing like them right now.

The full list of tracks included are :

1. The Weatherman (No Wonder I Feel Blue) 2. Lazy Sunday Morning 3. Wake Up Call 4. Take Me As You Find Me 5. The Only Thing I’m Guilty Of (Is Losing You) 6. Got My Hopes Up 7. Show Me A Sign 8. You Speak My Language 9. Butterflies & Rainbows 10. Faith In You

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

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