November 15th, 2007
Predicting big things for Carly Sings
Writing about music is like being on a constant treadmill of album-listening. You get to hear the good, the bad and the woefully over-rated (I promise I won’t mention Arcade Fire again). About half of what you hear is mid-radar; solid offerings from hard-working bands. Another sizeable chunk is the stuff that, after a couple of listens, you know you won’t ever pick off the shelf again. And then there’s the minute fraction of gems, the ones you listen to obsessively, bore other people about and end up in your ‘Best albums of the Year’ list. In this tiny sub-section, every so often someone comes along and jumpstarts your faith in music again.
One such person, is Carly Blackman, aka Carly Sings, an Irish-French chanteuse (I don’t like that word, but it sums her up perfectly) who I’ve recently heard rough recordings of. Not only is her voice startlingly beautiful - blurring the lines between Camille, Emiliana Torrini, St. Vincent and maybe even a smidge of Stina Nordenstam - she’s one of those all-round musicians and a gifted songwriter. Oddly, the more you listen to her, the more you’re surprised that she’s Irish.
There are rough masters of her upcoming album at her iLike page (listen to ‘Eyes Closed’) and acoustic versions of some of the album tracks on her myspace page (’You Are Travelling’ is gorgeous). If you want to catch her live, she is the first support on the Halfset bill this Friday, November 16th at the Sugar Club, along with Dry County. (Niall has a previously unheard Halfset track exclusive and ticket giveaway to the gig in this post).
This year has been a great year for albums by women - PJ Harvey, Feist, Emma Pollack - and if The Glove Thief is out on time, Carly Sings will be on that list: and I won’t be surprised if a major label picks her up. The last couple of years has seen the emergence of a handful of Irish women like Julie Feeney, Ann Scott and Miriam Ingram making highly original, eclectic music and Carly Sings joins their number.
You heard it here first.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Chanteuse! Carly is not in the least smidgen French,despite the many affectations.Her music is great though, perhaps especially because it doesn’t sound like the usual Irish female singer-songwriter stuff.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
(Ah, I see there’s a mini-me out there)
Sounds like she’s just up my street- Camille, St Vincent, Stina Nordenstam. I’ll definitely check her out. The timing is perfect too as I was feeling a bit uninspired in terms of new music this week. Cheers for the tip.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Don’t forget M.I.A and maybe even Emily Haines (though it feels like a long time ago, I believe it was Jan 2007!)
November 15th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Welcome Little Red, perhaps Carly’s strong affinity for all things Gallic got into my head. Yes we’re agreed, the not-sounding-Irish-in-the-slightest probably threw me. And you don’t have to be French to be a chanteuse - any music hack will tell you that.
Red, all those comparisons seem pretty accurate to me, glad you’re inspired!
TGWAOF, plenty of time for authorative lists missus.
Haines has a nice voice, but Stars have poisoned me against her. That whole Stars album, even her, sounds so collectively bad to me.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Nice piece. Agree with it all really. She may well be another mid-radar artiste, but was also very impressed by Simone White last week when she played the Sugar Club. Lovely bittersweet voice.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Wait, what did Hainsey do on the Stars album???
Are you sure you’re not getting her confused with Amy Millan?
Fuck, Metric (Hainsey’s band) is awesome!
Once Reverie Sound Revue get their debut album out - Lisa Lobsinger will become the leading (Canadian) female super-star. She’s got a ridiculously incredibly voice.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I ALWAYS mix them two up, I blame Canada for having too many musicians That and sleep deprivation. Metric = cool. Stars = MOR abysmal rubbish.
And I see you’ve been posting about Carly being hot?
Ooo yes, looking forward to RSR album.
Are you going along tonight Pedro?
November 16th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Metric are brilliant. Hainsey’s vocals on Broken Social Scene’s “You Forgot It In People” are un-real….She is sweeeet.
Poor Stars…Will they sell-out Tripod in January?
A certain Obscure-Remixer told me she was hot and to haul ass down to the show to catch her set.
So yup, I’ll be down to catch Halfset’s shoddy live set-up.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I still haven’t heard Stars second album, but thought the first was brilliant. And the songs I heard in the Button Factory last month sounded good.
Saw BSS in Vicar street earlier this year, and to be honest, I got bored with their endless noodling and left early.
ALbums are great though.
Anyway, my point is that Carly Sings is a total fox.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I said second album but I meant new..
November 18th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I really enjoyed her set on Friday night - I liked her French song at the end, and the ‘lullaby’ track especially. Looking forward to hearing the album. Halfset and Dry County were great too. Was nice to see you, although I didn’t get to talk to you much, hope you had a good night
June 5th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
[…] those unfamiliar with her music check out the review by Sinead and head over to her MySpace page to listen to some of her […]