This 16-year old from Phoenix, Arizona has a sweet and soothing voice yet writes songs with a veteran’s sense of structure and melody. Taylor Upsahl‘s second release, the cleverly titled Visceratonic, belies her age with a strong knowledge how to do what she does so very well.
The opening cut, “Portrait Pattern” is piano driven, with some very nice chord patterns and shifts which immediately make you sit up and pay attention. “Hopes Too High” has a tasteful acoustic guitar body and a fine rhythm with subtle harmonies on the vocals; “Sunflower” is a breezy, warm strummed song – stripped down to elegant simplicity with just the one instrument and her voice and “Games” is a standout – acoustic pop and catchy. And again, shifts and twists in the progression is well-executed.
“Rain” is another bare-bones performance – here, just piano and vocals and you can feel the emotion in the waves of her voice; “Golden Rims” is an uptempo pop track and another shining moment – the vocal interplay is perfect for this song (the one thing I kept imagining was an accordion to embellish the melody!) and “Follow Me” has beautifully subdued acoustic guitar picking leading into a full band performance and closes this album in high style.
Great production, minimal accompaniment and excellent songwriting. At such an early age, one can only hope to hear more from this talent in the years to come and of this order.
RECOMMENDED
Visceratonic is available now on iTunes and Spotify.
https://youtu.be/5yFzBDM-xY4
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