My Indigo, My Indigo - album review
Sharon den Adel has toured the globe and achieved critical and commercial success as the voice of Dutch metal band Within Temptation.
This solo project under the new moniker could not step any further away from that world, but that is just how she wanted it.
Taking a break from Within Temptation and exploring what else lay within her was a deliberate step to search within her soul for the more personal tracks she had never been able to record before.
This was never initially intended for public consumption. She had just wanted to explore for her own satisfaction. But she was so taken aback and impressed with what happened she decided eventually to share it with others.
What we do have is a delicious slice of electronic pop with thumping beats that place it neatly between the happy-go-lucky pop charts and the dancehalls where she has actually previously starred after providing vocals for Armin van Buuren’s In And Out Of Love a decade ago.
There is a kind of sassiness behind her vocal style that could only come from somebody who has been leading stadiums for the length of time Sharon has. And My Indigo may lead to a new path of success for her.
Take the track Crash And Burn. Heartbeat-like percussion thunders the song along as she allows her voice to soar across the top. It’s one of the album’s highlights with its escalating ‘woooooh’ of a chorus that displays her vocal range expertly.
Black Velvet Sun has the kind of double drum beat that has made another Dutch act, My Baby, so catchy, while also giving British bands like Brother & Bones a more tribal feel. Here My Indigo is a little more aggressive, going almost Florence Welch as strings accompany her in letting loose vocally and baring her emotive teeth.
We are softer throughout Star Crossed Lovers, but again, percussion plays a starring role. Perhaps that is the metal chick in her shining through on this record, an element of her past influences she couldn’t quite let go.
It is these expressive and exciting bursts of thunder that make each track more than just another pop song. They all have more feeling than that.
Rating: 7/10
Sharon den Adel has revealed that she is now back with a reformed Within Temptation and a new record and tour will be announced soon.
