How refreshing to come across a young artist pursuing
country music ideals without veering down the route of ‘quick fix’ pop-rock
models. Hannah Rose Platt uses the combined beauty of her lyrical wisdom and
wondrous vocals to populate a blank canvas of a debut record in remarkable and
mature portions. Adopting a folk-tinged influence and finespun musical
arrangements helps steer PORTRAITS, Hannah’s debut full length release, into
the territory of lauded association and anointed acclaim. All twelve tracks
etch a tantalising appeal across your mind, showcasing Hannah’s potential to
develop into an influential songwriter, both in evidence on solo contributions
and the nous to learn from the best.
Being hailed by Sid Griffin as a ‘young, north of England
Emmylou Harris’ is an eye opening comment to introduce a female artist but such
hyperbole is not so out of place. On a record simply but beautifully crafted,
Hannah explores some deep seated concepts using guile, awareness and a flair
for using the song writing medium to invoke some serious character studies. The
bravest of Hannah’s eight solo and two collaborative writing efforts is the marvellous
‘1954’, taking on the subject of
dementia with breath taking maturity. Further character based compositions
reveal the ultimate daydreaming fantasy of ‘Dancer’
and emotional inter-family communication from behind prison walls in ‘Birthday Card’.
Every aspiring song writer will dig deep into the lavish
well of relationships to form their subjects and Hannah delivers this
wonderfully in a trio of tracks looking at the topics of regret, aftermath and
reconciliation. ‘Half Way Home’ takes
on the notion of turning back time to alter the future, while ‘Crumbs’ sieves through the remnants of a
failed association. ‘The Doll and the Soldier’
is a metaphorical take on rekindling old times and is a co-write with Sophie
Daniels. Likewise the track ‘(We’ll Say
Goodbye) Tomorrow’ sees Hannah share penning duties with her co-producer
Michael Bonagura to explore the decision to delay the inevitable for just one
more night.
Hannah had the good fortune to take herself off to Nashville
from her Liverpool base and enjoy its rich recording resources to make
PORTRAITS. She also shows an intuitive inkling in what constitutes a good song
when selecting the two borrowed tunes for the record. Vocally Hannah totally
wipes the floor with Luke Bryan on her version of ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ bringing visions of a young Lee Ann Womack imposing
raw emotion and countrified talent to the ubiquitous drinking song. Also honing
in on a song co-written by Shane McAnally, one of the industry’s best, will do her
song writing development no harm. Michael Bonagura’s ‘Little Screws’ is a delightful song to launch the dulcet tones of
Hannah at the commencement of the album revealing a powerfully messaged piece, focussing
on mundane reflection before exploding with the mortal trinity of ‘a needle, a
gun and a rich man’s war’.
Hannah’s sweet and comforting vocals stretch the length of
the record and are allowed to blossom courtesy of the subtle music arrangements
infiltrating a multitude of string accompaniments, most notably fiddle and
cello. As intimated, this record possesses all the hallmarks of that dream-laden
aspiring singer-songwriter migrating to Nashville knowing that her agenda-free
offerings will likely to gravitate more to the left field Americana world than
the corporate radio obsessed moguls of Music Row. This is a massive complement
to Hannah as her passion and drive to make glorious aromatic music, relieved of
chasing artificial melodies, lends itself to an album of great substance.
Without any hesitation, endorsement of this near faultless
debut work is forthcoming and PORTRAITS is as pure and natural an album you
could wish to listen to. Hannah Rose Platt is a welcome addition to the UK
music scene and proud accomplice to a record sealed to add value to your
precious listening experience.
www.hannahroseplatt.com
