When Lauryn Hill came out with her solo album we were all so
\nimpressed! She wrote every song, played nearly every instrument and
\nproduced the album herself and she wasn’t yet 24 years old. And the
\nmost important thing: the album was damn good!<\/p>\n
Well, Lauryn is not alone in the category of female, musical
\nwhiz kid. New Zealand has one of their own in Bic Runga, who at the
\nage of 20 had already written, played and produced her own dreamy
\nalbum
\nDrive<\/i>.<\/p>\n
A native of Christchurch, Runga grew up in a family where music
\nwas as constant as breathing (her sister Boh is in group Stellar).
\nBy the time she was 18, she was fairly proficient on drums, guitar
\nand keyboards. She released two singles and later included them on
\nher debut album.<\/p>\n
That album,
\nDrive<\/i>, is a warm, intimate and delicate album employing the
\nuse of sparse arrangements and highlighting Runga’s crystalline
\nvoice and writing talent. It starts out with the title track which
\nconsists of Runga’s vocals weaving through a single guitar
\naccompaniment. It’s a poignant song about breaking up. She is
\nriding in the car with her lover knowing that once she is dropped
\noff it will be their last good-bye.<\/p>\n
The second cut, her big hit “Sway”, is a wonderfully melodic
\nsong reminiscent of Crowded House (She gets a little help from
\nformer Crowdie, Nick Seymour, in the arrangements department.) She
\nsings about the ambivalent emotions experienced when approaching a
\nlove interest for the first time: “And there’s no cure, no way to
\nbe sure \/ Why everything’s turned inside out\/Instilling so much
\ndoubt \/ It makes me so tired-I feel so uninspired \/ My head is
\nbattling with my heart \/ My logic has been torn apart.”<\/p>\n
“Sway” is buttressed by another breakup song, “Hey,” which still
\nhas the quiet quality of the other songs except it’s punctuated by
\na guitar-heavy bridge and a sharper edge to Runga’s vocals. “Swim”
\nand “Sorry” are also rockers, but with all the guitars and drums
\nthey still manage to sound quiet, adding more intimacy.<\/p>\n
“Roll Into One” is a rockabilly flavored tune that reminds me of
\nSam Phillips on her
\nIndescribable Wow<\/i> album. The song reveals the singer’s
\nannoyance at a fellow who is waffling about the idea of spending
\ntime with her: “We could sit in the sun\/Let the days roll into one
\n\/ How could you take so long to decide? \/ How would you know until
\nyou tried?”<\/p>\n
The vocal performance on “Suddenly Strange” is dripping with so
\nmuch feeling it’s hard to believe that this song is anything but
\nautobiographical. “Delight” is a dark song about a lover who’s
\nclosed off and delight is something the singer reminisces about.
\nThe arrangement is so sparse that it seems that the instruments are
\nsimply accents for Runga’s vocals. It’s a striking effect.<\/p>\n
There’s not a bad cut on this album. One might argue that it is
\na bit over-saturated with despair and gloominess, but that is not a
\ncriteria I use to judge great music. And if you think Runga is some
\nkind of pessimistic, despondent waif sitting around waiting for the
\nphone to ring, then pop the disc into your CD-ROM drive and check
\nout her 10-minute interview. She’s simply ebullient. Music as
\ntherapy? Who knows. Why don’t you give yourself a dose?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6220],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36418","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bic-runga","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36418"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36418"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}