Danni Nicholls, The Melted Morning - album review
Singer-songwriter Danni Nicholls has released her third studio album The Melted Morning in her usual, soft Americana style.
Produced by Jordan Brooke Hamlin (Indigo Girls, Lucy Wainwright-Roche) at MOXE, in Nashville, it was worked on by a nearly all-woman team to add to a feeling of female empowerment throughout.
Musical and technical collaborators lend their helping hands to the Bedford star's compositions to bring them to relative life. We say 'relative life', because truth be told the overly calm nature of the music goes too far that the only melted thing here is your interest towards the end of the record.
The 11 tracks feel over-long, maybe one or two could have been dropped to cut down on the length of what is a pretty cumbersome and sometimes-lethargic ride.
That's not to say that everything falls flat. The staccato pace of Hear Your Voice jumps in and out of focus with a wry smile. It's slightly slurry style allows Danni to hold centre stage in the verse before welcoming in some sweet backing vocals from The Secret Sisters in the chorus.
Not that Danni needs too much help in that department. Her star trait is her voice. Velvety and strong, she pushes power into the tracks with her vocals that rise and fall to great effect and hold back enough oomph to really belt out the key notes.
This is on display in Frozen. One of the real highlights here, the acoustic vibes give way to distant electrics in the chorus that, combined with the thumping percussion, create a competent and waving wall of sound that allows Danni to really let loose over the top.
Lemonade, too, is acoustic in nature but aims at the softer side of the musical spectrum. But its plodding nature interspersed with keys and strings fails to ignite the excitement and represents much of what fails to hit the mark at times on the album.
With a few pace changes here and there to add some fun to Danni's great voice this album may have fared more favourably. But this slice of Americana is a little too ponderous to hit the heights.
Rating: 5/10
Danni Nicholls performs at Hexagon Theatre, found at MAC in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, on April 26
