Crystal clear and pleasing to the ear
David Allen Jones | Milwaukee, WI USA | 03/04/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Wait for your Spring" is a pleasure to listen to, and gets better each time you come back to it, sliding past the familiarity of the tunes and slipping deeper into the meanings. Brightwell is blessed with a naturally melodic vocal instrumentality, and JJ's backup guitar work complements it well. The cajun/country twang guitar on one of the songs brings an internal smile of surprise, and a bigger surprise is the final track, where hauntingly echoing refrains of Kelly's voice are perfectly blended with futuristic techno-dance thumping rhythms by DJ and producer Jeff "Kepi" Steinmetz of San Francisco. A very nice album"
Birds in the Cottonwood Trees
Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 06/21/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Not knowing anything about this artist, I picked it up @ a $5 sale. The independent disc has a nice folk-pop sound. Brightwell's vocals deliver emotional power against the backdrop of her acoustic guitar on the catchy opener "Knee Deep," "Birds in the cottonwood trees, music in the shivering leaves." "Daffodils" takes us to the place where loneliness lives & love comes, "Tonight, I sleep alone; This love is wide awake; Yellow daffodils are blooming from the place where my heart aches." "Face in the Sun" is a midtempo track on which Kelly's voice soars. "Falling In" is a sweet track with a high-pitched vocal on the chorus that gives the sense of weightlessness or falling, "On my horizon shimmering, a panic mirage, a memory." Other tracks like "Rockets" & "Recover" are also strong. The set concludes with an electronica piece "Clear Blue," unlike all the folk pop that has previously played. The singer's website tells that she is from the Chicago area, was based in Minneapolis when this recording was made, suffered an injury in 2005 & is just starting to perform again in the Portland OR area. This good independent release is a strong freshman effort. Enjoy!"
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1