Naomi Hall – Love Full of Punches
Naomi Hall is a singer/songwriter from Seattle, WA, who has put an electronic twist on piano rock and has done a decent job at doing so. Her songs are all very pretty, her singing is beautiful and her songwriting is not to be overlooked either. All in all, Love Full of Punches is a good CD.
Vocals and lyrics aside, Naomi Hall is an accomplished pianist. She has managed to take something which had the potential of being stale and boring and made it upbeat and fun. The only weakness is that while not all of the tracks sound similar, there are a handful of tracks which really sound the same. It does give the CD some continuity, but on the other hand it’s fortunate that there are enough tracks on here that sound different to give her sound some diversity.
In addition to giving her piano-rock an electronic twist, there are times where the CD borrows from the new age genre. “Got Away Clean” is a great example of this, as it has some of the same ethereal qualities of Lorena McKennitt’s music.
“Bride of the Monster,” starts with a style reminiscent of a piano-bar-gone wrong, as if she were playing her usual style when the “Monster Mash” just wandered in and decided to mess around with the song. It’s cute and interesting all at the same time.
The CD closes with two remixes of songs previously heard on the album, “Nothing but Silence” and “Until I Drown”, both of which were good songs to begin with and didn’t need to be remixed; however, the remixes show that she does have some creative diversity. While they don’t add much to the CD, the reason for their inclusion makes sense.
Overall, this is a good CD. It is not the kind of thing you’d run screaming to your friends about, but it is definitely a solid effort and illustrates some honest talent.
-Andrea Caruso
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