Ah, the good old days! The days of wine and roses. The days when singers sang songs that spoke to your heart. As I listened to Gina Sicilia's album "Can't Control Myself", I got that old fashioned feeling once again.
However, Ms Sicilia isn't another retro powered princess re-treading someone else's past glories. It is more a case of her showing respect where it is due – such as in her reverential cover of Bobby Bland's "Members Only" – and taking lessons learnt into her own song writing (and the majority of the songs on this album are, after all, penned by the lady herself). If you didn't know that, you could easily make the mistake of thinking "Before The Night Is Through" was a lost Drifters song or that the title track, "Can't Control Myself", had been written for Connie Francis. The point, however, is not that these songs would be better done by someone else but that they are the kind of songs that could easily be done by someone else and that is a good - and difficult to achieve - thing.
The rounded earthiness of Ms Sicilia's voice has much to offer too. She never quite growls and she never quite purrs but she nonetheless shows an almost feline grace in her performances here with no better example than on "Gimme A Simple Song" as she hits the groove like a fifties r'n'b singer would, showing economy where so many would over emote. That's her style and it certainly seems to work.
"Can't Control Myself" is a fine album and one that signifies that Gina Sicilia is here for the distance.