Eliza Shaddad

"Waters EP"

Release date: 16 June 2014

8/10

13 June 2014, 11:30 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Albums)

(Eliza Shaddad)

In a recent review, I alluded to the difficulty of critically assessing EPs, as they often serve as primers for developing artists – a way to tentatively put themselves out there prior to the commitment and expectation of a full-length weighs on them. In many cases, as enjoyable as these EPs may be, the fact that the artists are still working out their kinks and finding their way is fairly evident. Every so often, an up and coming artist brandishes an EP so confident and seemingly full-formed that its sole regret is that it is just an EP and not something more. Personally, I was fortunate earlier this year to encounter such a recording in I Have A Tribe’s debut, Yellow Raincoats, and I am pleased to have found another in Eliza Shaddad’s Waters.

Waters is not Shaddad’s first release; her debut, the January-March EP, released in 2012, dealt in exceptionally low key folk music, Shaddad’s vocals oftentimes barely peaking above a whisper. In essence, her debut accomplished exactly what I describe above, and two years on is a good snip of time passed for a follow up EP. Waters’ opening title track could not serve Shaddad’s reintroduction better. A focused and vociferous opening salvo in comparison to her prior work, Shaddad’s resolute strumming works in tandem with the dogged snare cracks in creating a gusty intensity that ups the ante on her previous quiet honesty. She mirrors her artistic precociousness here with her declarations of being unafraid of death – in fact, it’s not that she’s not afraid, it’s that death “does not bother” her, a tastily nonchalant assertion – but be that as it may, as the song’s dark undertow churns beneath her, she still pleads, “don’t let me go”.

While not as immediate as that opening track, “When We” and its nimble and sublime finger-picking and the bittersweet, pedal-steel laced “Alright Again” are just as impressive and satisfying. In addition to the more assertive musical accompaniments, Shaddad’s most prevalent step forward is in her vocals. Where January-March showed her to possess a fine, nicely restrained voice, Waters has Shaddad varying her dynamics, whipping and winding around and amongst her instrumental surroundings on the title track while still staying true to her penchant for metered sincerity on subsequent tracks, though with dashes of earnestness and gusto. No place is this more evident than the transcendent closer, “You For Me”. Against a minimal backdrop, Shaddad is front and center showering down a litany of reasons for being with her partner, ending with the simply elegant, “you/I choose you/I choose you/for me”.

Bold, deep, and, in turn, turbulent and serene as its namesake and the vitality of the brushstrokes adorning its cover, Waters leaves us with that clichéd baited breath, waiting for Shaddad’s inevitable full-length debut.