- You can always tell when there is a marketing event. Christmas is the big one, and Logan’s own Dami Im has just about cornered the market on “Mother’s Day” appropriate releases and concert tours. And so it is with her fourth album, I Hear A Song, which despite the obvious cashing in Sony is doing, does have a glimmer of interest to the more serious music consumer.
For this outing, I'm takes the less produced road. With producer Rick Price and working in Nashville, the keyboard tracks were played live by Im at the same time as she was laying down the vocal live thus giving the recording a “live” feeling. (It is interesting to note, Im was originally a student of piano and was engaged as an accompanist for other singers before she was coaxed into opening up her vocal skills, which are not too shabby at all.) The track listing, Im notes herself is a little “unusual”, as it’s neither one thing (all classic jazz standards) nor another ('60's girl pop), however the choice of material has the connecting thread – the stories essayed in song from a female perspective, and from a rawer vibe than Im has done previously.
The collection is eclectic as heck… opening with Nina Simone’s Feeling Good which is handled well, however not with the smoky richness that the track needs, then tripping around the works of Burt Bacharach / Hal David (I Say A Little Prayer) and Dusty Springfield’s classic You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me where Im’s crystal clear pop sensibilities allow her to shine brighter. There are versions of the jazz / blues legends – Rodgers / Hart’s My Funny Valentine, Thelonious Monk’s Around Midnight, Billie Holliday’s God Bless The Child and Arthur Hamilton’s somewhat overused standard Cry Me A River. What Im lacks in the classic “lady sings the blues” fashion, she adds in spades a technical perfection that doesn’t lack passion which can come when a technically perfect artist is carefully over-produced.
There’s stuff from this century as well, Beyoncé’s swinging tribute to Etta James Love On Top and Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me, where Im seems more at home with the Jones track and less with Love On Top. What makes the difference is the ability of Im to do something Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA was able to do, to sing with a “cry” in the voice, raising the emotional level higher than a three minute pop song should be able to do. (Witness Im’s extraordinary second place in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, when she was by far and away the best singer on the Globen stage in Stockholm, only to be beaten by Jamala from Ukraine with a song embedded with an even more passionate cry from the heart.) Her interpretation of the Johnny Mercer Autumn Leaves is a case in point.
Two original numbers are included both penned by Im, the title track, which is a light, swinging little number and the equally cute closing track Like A Cello which sit okay in this well-regarded company of classic songs and songwriters.
This isn’t an album that aficionados of the female song book will praise to the skies, it’s been designed with a market in mind – the ones who will buy it and also go and see Im perform this collection almost as it was recorded – live with (mostly) a small band creating an intimate moment. One thing is for certain, however, your mum, grandma, and your great Aunty Dot will love it.
- Blair Martin.