Every day that the sun shines, I hope that another champion of Scottish pop music will emerge from the shadows of introversion and EDM that have so successfully kept the punters from the tills in records shops of this tartan land. So, do we have a champion in former Teen Canteen chanteuse Carla J Easton?
To a certain extent, the answer is yes. There is plenty of evidence within “Impossible Stuff” to prove that Ms. Easton knows how to craft a clever song and she can conjure up a melody with apparent ease. It is also readily apparent that there has been some money spent on this album so you get all those old school goodies like proper arrangements and very respectable musicianship but, despite all these shiny trinkets, there is something missing. It’s not the songs for I personally know three singers who would kill to stamp their voice upon either “Milk & Honey” or “Girl from Before”. It is, unfortunately, Ms. Easton’s voice. She simply lacks the kind of authority that a singer needs to sell songs like these and she is too often overpowered by those elegant arrangements.
So, would, perhaps, the thought of a tempting vinyl release of the album on Olive Grove Records be enough to part me from my money? I love my coloured vinyl but not this time. “Impossible Stuff” is the kind of album, however, that will undoubtedly be the choice of the beardscratchers and hipsters when they choose their album of the year.