If it was the New Year I would be making a New Year's resolution. Okay, I usually blow these well intentioned promises within a couple of days or some in cases I have even had to make grovelling excuses after just a few minutes. However, this New Year's resolution (made in October) is one that I shall do my damnedest to keep.
This year I will do my best to see Australia’s Chloe Hall in concert. However, having just visited her website I found her musical diary of her recent dates in nearby Paris. I quickly realize that once again I have probably blown it. In fact, she has just toured the U.K., Ireland, Canada and a host of other places, and guess what? Yes, I missed the lot. If only I had heard her new album Outside earlier.
Chloe is a busy lady taking her beautifully engaging, gentle, and poetic folk style through a diary crammed full of engagements. As a result the word is spreading and she has built up a worldwide fan-base as more and more people get tuned into her exceptional song-writing, charismatic nature, and delightful music.
There is a joyously refreshing honesty to her well written songs. Her outlook is both mature and yet vulnerable, worldly-wise but never world weary, emotional but not gushy. It is a fine balance that makes her music both engaging and intriguing. She has the ability to paint potent scenes within a few lines that are delivered with a gentle sensitivity.
Her last album White Street heralded something of a breakthrough. Now the highly talented Chloe has served up another treat with Outside, her latest release, a nicely presented collection of ten original songs that underline just why her music has been used on Australian television, and the soundtrack to the film The Caterpillar Wish.
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