THE CALL
(https://dannielledeandrea.bandcamp.com/)
6.5/10
There is a lushness in the production here that carries echoes of a bygone era, but without resort to corny pastiche. Dannielle De Andrea (better known to Australian audiences as Dannielle Gaha) is now based in LA, where she has co-written 11 songs that hark back in style to the Great American Songbook, while her singing has something of that girl-next-door ingenuousness of Doris Day.
Pop, country, soul, bossa and jazz elements variously ease their way to the foreground, over which De Andrea’s attractive voice rides with a certain blitheness or occasionally a more worldly quality, and when she does want an edge of greater emotional bite she never resorts to manufactured anguish. The music can live dangerously close to being aural confectionary, and yet the singing is so naturally engaging and the songs are so well crafted as to raise it above being a sweet treat to something of more substance. Among her collaborators is the exceptional keyboards player Larry Goldings, and their co-written waltz-time title track is the highlight.