Catching A Tiger

After hearing the mesmerising 'Everwhere I Go' on we7.com I checked out Lissie's other songs. I also saw her live in a tiny venue in London in February 2010. Quite simply, she's an amazing talent. Her voice, with a huge likeness to Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac, is so powerful and bluesey, and her sheer energy on stage has me hooked. 'In Sleep' reveals some decent guitar skills and 'Record Collector' steadily builds to a fantastic ending... I love this album, and urge you to check it out, and check Lissie out live, her band are equally as talented and can really rock... A real talent, and one to watch in 2010 and onwards. Buy this album!!

Jeez! I'm flabbergasted at the sheer brilliance of Lissie. I've just seen her live at the Glee Club in Birmingham and she and her band astounded and spellbinded and just dragged bluesy-folky-alterno-rocky-souly music slap, bang into the present. She's completely her own person. Her own, humble, almost diffident self. Refreshingly un-diva-like. A regular kinda gal with Mississippi mud permanently wedged deep in her fingernails and soul... Her songwriting is wonderfully free of cliche and cod-portentousness like so many of her over-hyped and under-talented contemporaries. Many of whom have ridiculous levels of critical and public adulation. Lissie, on the other hand, wipes the floor with all of them! She's nothing less than the voice of a generation and of a particular geography. She's as essential and important an artist as Regina Spektor. They both share a fierce intelligence and great songcraft. Regina is, obviously, madder. And her stunning, baffling compositions reflect this greater madness. Lissie is, arguably, more sincere. She's certainly less self-consciously quirky. But her simpler songs have an elemental power that is all her own. I love all the songs on this genre-defying album in their own way. But I'm sent into spirals of quasi-religious ecstasy by the "won't you fill me up with it..." mini-mantra in the middle of Record Collector that reminds me of the similar ecstasy that the goddess chant in Inkubus Sukkubus's Wytches sends me into.
Nevermind the religious epiphanies... just check out her versions of (improvements on) Metallica's Nothing Else Matters and Lady GaGa's Bad Romance on youtube. Sadly omitted from this album, they prove just how unbelievably versatile Lissie really is - best album of 2010. (Possibly first equal with Dommin... I'm not sure yet...)

I kept hearing the song 'when I'm alone' on Radio 2, but Steve Wright didn't say who it was until yesterday!
I downloaded the album from Amazon that same day without hearing anything else, which is something I very rearly do as I am very fussy where music is concerned. I'm pleased to say I'm glad I took the risk! This is a great album, it's so refreshing to here someone like this, with a great voice and song writing skill who is not following the same template as most artists these days.

There's a mix of styles here, Folk, Rock, Blues and Pop, and it's all good! I'm only on my second listen and I love it already, which is another rare thing for me, as it usually takes a while for something to catch.

If you are a fan of Female vocalists but fed up with Gaga, Rhianna, etc, etc.. This could be for you.