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Album Details

• Artist: Kristina Westin
• EP:
What A Night
• Label: PB8
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: mark_morton on 2010-08-06

Kristina Westin is a bizarrely enchanting soul - bizarre in that she is able to defy genre stereotyping and yet retain her near mystical ability to compose deeply heartfelt music. This five-song EP, What a Night, cannot be contained in a one-phrase-defining statement, as there is too much depth and diversity exuding from each track.

Westin is a new breed of singer-songwriter. Back in the 1960s and 70s, singer-songwriters were either rosy-cheeked folk and country singers, or they were char-toothed, prickly-faced folk and country singers - it didn't matter what they looked like, they were always folk and country singers. In both cases, they usually sobbed about how bad America was during that Vietnam-dooming era. However, Westin inverts and skewers that label. While there are distinct traces of folk and country in her music, the songs bloom into something grander, almost spiritual, as elements of rock and smooth jazz, with a world-music sensibility anchors each chord progression.

And let's not forget about the voice. Westin's vocal style yields an innocent, powerful-yet-fragile tone that can turn any negative feeling into a positive outlook. For comparison's sake, imagine the vocal abilities of Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Paula Cole, and Shawn Colvin all harnessed by one individual and you will come very close to Westin's strength. She lures you in on the first track like a Greek siren and does not relent until the silence at the end of the EP, and you somehow find yourself a better person for having experienced it.

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