You can’t go far wrong with cake. I can’t claim to be a philosopher but I can put to and two together and I am therefore pretty sure that I am correct in my assertion. So, by the power of the carrot cake from Cottonrake, how am I going to get from the bakery to Emma King and her EP “The Sun and Blues”?
It ain’t easy but a master of the contrived segue such as myself can manage it. The carrot cake from Cottonrake is a real and tangible thing and so is Emma King. She also has taken time with the four songs that make up this EP – on vinyl, naturally – to make her music as real and tangible as she is. That may well sound like a retro move to keep the box tickers of the “music is an organic thing” faith happy yet Ms. King does much more than tick the style boxes here. She sounds organic and, perhaps because her approach is a country mile away from the computerised perfection of manufactured music, she lets her choice of songs breathe with “Rollin’ In”, in particular, sounding like it drifted in with a warm, and welcome, summer breeze.
To comment on the space a singer gives her songs may sound unusual but it is fact that most will go for maximum loudness these days instead of allowing the song to gain focus through the singer’s performance. Emma King performs with the kind of confidence that needs no artificial assistance and, consequently, makes these four songs more like those of a time when music still mattered. That makes my ears happy.
Best song? “Rollin’ In” ticks all my boxes.
The verdict? Emma King makes retro real work for me.