XSARA - Are There Dragons in Your Heart?

You may remember way back in February of XSARA's debut feature on the blog sharing her EP and news of her album on the way... well, said album Are There Dragons in Your Heart? is available now and I've been invited to take a listen...

In typical XSARA style, it's rich in sultry tones and jazz-influenced feels which suit her mature voice perfectly. Kicking off with She's a Monster, a rocking, upbeat circus-sideshow of a track that is sure to sound even better live, the album takes a step back on Moving On, a heartfelt piano-ballad. It runs around a simple chord progression and is led by the lead vocals, providing a real showcase early on in the album. Strange Love hints at the first full-band jazz feel with smokey, stabby piano chords and a classic ride line, the vocals with a real Paloma Faith-esque tone whilst Sticks and Stones once again dips down slightly with another, slower, piano-led track which soon picks up with a real Nina Simone backdrop to the music.

Sitting pretty in the middle is Business of Bodies, a pick-me-up if ever there was one with great live-sounding drums and sax, vocals and the lower register of the piano picking up the ostinato at the start of each bar. The vocals remain as interesting, with a nod to Anthony Keidis' spoken-word/singing style at times, before It's Not Me drops, dimming the lights on its way past. It's another piano-ballad but there's a certain fragility that isn't present in its predecessors, a certain vulnerability that really sparkles. I'm Your Animal has a nice feel and pace whilst maintaining the classic XSARA sound.

Leading us into the final stages is the frantic One Eyed Man that would be at home on one of the smaller Glastonbury Festival stages in the obscure outer fields in the small hours of Saturday morning, whilst the great-sounding drums pick up where they started, leading the charge in the final track You Got a Problem? It's the perfect summary of the album with breezy sax, sexy vocals and lazy jazz bass.

Are There Dragons in Your Heart is XSARA at her best and is, I'm sure, exactly what her fan base are both hoping for and expect. If you're intrigued, you can preview and purchase a copy for yourself from her Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep up to date with XSARA on Facebook. Enjoy :)

All at Sea

Jools Holland has restored my faith in Popular Music. I think there must be some kind of criteria for performing on his show, something along the lines of 'no regurgitated junk'. But when I had almost lost faith in our current chart-ranking wannabes and the music movement of today, Jools came along with a cracking line-up on his weekly show; a show I've always dreamed of one day performing on.
Tonight's show featured such an eclectic mix of musicians, each with totally differing backgrounds and styles but each with the same levels of appreciation for one another's perception on music today. Paloma Faith for example, is a breath of fresh air for the female vocal market. She sounds like an American songstress, a showgirl from the 40s with an image to match, and even talked about regularly playing music through the decades at her shows, starting in the 1920s and working her way up. Her brand of motown-pop is catchy yet inspiring, displaying a great awareness of writing a modern song whilst capturing the sparkle of age-old magic. The riff-tastic Wolfmother also played, not a band I'm aware of much but certainly worthy of their spot on the show; they have a great sound with bags of energy and a greatly unique sounding front-man. But the real saviour tonight was living legend Seasick Steve. He manages to strip music down to its very core, the very genuine foundations on which popular music is built on, yet with all the passion and feeling of now. His simple soapbox songs are probably note-perfect to those he used to sing around the fire when travelling in his Gypsy caravan, of which he still lives in, and I love that this, let's face it, old man has been given this shot so late on in life. The very fact that he has sold so many records and is performing at all kinds of events, from Glastonbury Festival to Later... prove that there is hope for anyone with any dash of creativity and any glimmer of hope. I can only imagine the culture-shock he gets when thinking back to how different life used to be as he sips champagne at award ceremonies, but he tips his cap to anyone with a dream, living proof that you don't need to 'know the right people' or, more accurately, 'line the right people's pockets with Daddy's money' to get somewhere in this fickle business. As an aspiring musician still in education, I love what I do and know that one day I WILL make a living making music, whatever form that might take, but I also know that this is the hardest thing to get into and it's going to take nothing but hard graft, a topic all too familiar in Seasick Steve's songs. The man is fantastic, a real awe-inspiring performer with so much originality and awareness of timbre and texture in his delicate yet foot-stomping songs. If I had a hat likes yours Steve, I'd be tipping it.