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Press Reviews
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| She could become a major talent. |
| The market for sensitive female singer-songwriters has become increasingly crowded of late. The all-conquering figure of Dido heads the field of course, and it seems every month throws up a new pretender to her crown. Paula Wolfe is the latest entry into this field, and her debut album Staring is a true solo effort given that she played every instrument, wrote every song and self-produced the album. She’s had a chequered history, being born in Ireland, raised in London and paying her musical dues in Manchester. She was also the singer in a punk-folk group but Staring sees her travel a more sedate path. She’s relocated back down in London now but the first thing you notice about Wolfe is her very Northern sensibility. It’s unusual to hear someone singing in an English accent and Wolfe pulls it off. Staring is hard to fault. The opening track Walk Away combines swooning strings and a lovely strummed acoustic guitar to dreamy effect. The title track follows and is probably the best song on the album. Wolfe employs a part sung, part spoken word approach to the verse before sliding deliciously into the chorus. In parts it’s reminiscent of early Suzanne Vega, having similar intelligent, literate lyrics. Lyrically, Wolfe has a talent for portraying characters and situations with the eye of a screenwriter. Oldham Street describes a rather bleak night in Manchester only ending when she falls back into her lover’s bed. Similarly, Leanne gets into the mind of an emotionally scarred child ("Leanne hides her head in her jumper when she’s sad") while West Side empathises with bored children who have been neglected by their parents. You need something a bit different to stand out from the rest of the crowd with this type of music. Wolfe does enough to suggest she could become a major talent. Staring definitely marks her out as a name to watch. - John Murphy |
| She could challenge Thea Gilmore. |
| Paula Wolfe possesses a lush, dreamy, little-girl-lost voice that can send goosebumps marching up and down your spine, and when she uses a conversational tone her halting, fumbling phrasing recalls Sophia Churney on Ooberman’s haunting ‘Shorley Wall’. It sounds like indie heaven then, and it could be, for Wolfe’s self-penned songs are as scathing and unflinching as anything by Trembling Blue Stars; if she sticks to the acoustic guitar, or can recruit a class backing band, she could challenge Thea Gilmore. Here’s hoping. |
| A rare and exceptional talent |
| A pretty good album. If Elkie Brookes and Alanis Morrisette shacked up in Manchester and somehow produced a love child, Wolfe would be the joyful result. Her voice and lyrics ring with maturity and experience: philosophical, observational and ultimately positive. Although certain songs border on the Gorgonzola-front lyrically (Oldham Street, Leanne), they are delivered in such a relaxed, Northern tone that one cannot help but warm to this wide-eyed Wolfe. When I first heard this album, it caught my attention. It wasn't the (admittedly above average, but not outstanding - the track Staring excepted - ) craftmanship of the songs; it wasn't the arrangement (Wolfe plays every instrument on the album) nor the musicianship; what made me melt just a little bit was the honesty. She means every word, which I believe is a rare and exceptional talent. I'd love to stumble into a pub in the Northern Quarter and find her, with the room in the palm of her hand, strumming a guitar. 7/10 Carol Hodge |
| The voice may be sweet but she has the eyes of Mike Leigh |
| Born in Dublin, raised in London, educated in Hull and musically bloodied in Manchester where she briefly played with punk folkers Gone To Earth before cutting loose to go the singer songwriter route. Now relocated back down south where she's been making increasingly bigger ripples on the London acoustic circuit, this is her debut album, a solo effort in every sense having played, arranged and produced everything you hear. It's also her own label. She's not exactly rootsy, her music more informed by pop, light folksy jazz, and, one suspects from such numbers as West Side, May I and the spoken Maybe, the stage musicals of Willy Russell. As the latter observation may suggest, her songs tend to be small stories and snapshots, her landscape that of the inner city streets and estates (the voice may be sweet but she has the eyes of Mike Leigh) strewn with crumpled cans of beer and populated by hardened faces (Oldham Street) and hardened hearts (Staring). Maybe it's the maternal instincts in her, but many of the songs deal with emotionally bruised children, the neglected kids of West Side, the emotionally withdrawn and scared girl in Leanne, the bored and the broken hanging around the corner on May I, the embittered teenage cynic of Joy. Maybe that's also why, although she sees the despair, the emotional brutalisation and the numbing of too many dreams, she also offers notes of hope, the possibilities of bluer skies and better lives that cling by the fingertips to That Is The Way and This Time. Even if, as on Wind, that feeling is only for a day. Mike Davies |
| Sensitive singer-songwriting for those whose cockles get warmed by Suzanne Vega and Dido. WORD |
| Easy-on the-ear, sensitive female singer songwriting for those whose cockles get warmed by Suzanne Vega and Dido. Jude Rogers |
| The really striking feature is Wolfe's voice....exotic intensity |
| An uneventful night on Oldham Street, Manchester, may not seem the stuff to gee up the songwriter's muse, but Paula Wolfe seems to specialise in such eloquent observations of the urban and banal.
Hence we also get Skinny, a simple descriptive song about a skinny white girl, Leanne, another outsider's hymn about a little girl, and West Side, which is about waiting for something to happen on a dull Sunday afternoon.
Such naval gazing comes couched in appealing acoustic arrangements, but the really striking feature is Wolfe's voice, which has the kind of exotic intensity of Kate Bush coupled with a head-girl quality of earnestness. Paul Taylor |
| Fall in love with her sweet, sweet voice.... BBC |
| Chances are you haven't heard of Paula Wolfe yet, but if you get down to Night and day on Monday 23rd February, you'll get the chance to see her as part of the Roadworks Tour, and fall in love with her sweet, sweet, voice and twisted tales of urban life.
According to her press release, Paula, "strains for the fluidity of Ricki Lee Jones" as a musician, "lies somewhere between Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith" as a performer, but writes with a heart that "is all Tom Waits".
Whoever she is, though, it all sounds very beautiful to us and she'll make a change to the usual bish bash rock kids that roll all over the night and day stage. |
| A rising talent. Time Out |
| A rising talent. |
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