aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

‘Hurt Like Me’ is 22-year-old Kelly Paige’s debut single, and it’s a blinder. Paige is a pretty singer-songwriter from Nashville (no, not a country singer-songwriter), and she now resides in England (perhaps to ensure that no one mistakes her being a country singer-songwriter).

Now, considering that this is her first single, it’s noteworthy to look at who she managed to rope in for the production – Glen Nicholls (Snow Patrol and Everything Everything) and Ben Mason (Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight and The Kooks). However, ‘Hurt Like Me’ isn’t indie-rock. Kelly Paige’s sound is jazz-bar pop-soul in the vein of Anna Calvi. Like Calvi, her lyrics are kind of angsty and the music is both darkly off-kilter and dreamily accessible. There’s a drunken piano part, a ska-tinged rhythm, and a gritty rock’n’roll guitar line. Paige’s gutsy vocal delivery have a tint of Amy Winehouse and Imelda May about them, but she certainly doesn’t sound like she imitating them – Paige’s voice stands up all on its own.

‘Hurt Like Me’ is released on October 31st through Playgun, and although Britain may have been spoilt lately by the influx of female pop-soul, singer-songwriters (Adele, Anna Calvi, Clare Maguire) after the success that the late Amy Winehouse initially had, Kelly Paige really does have the voice and songwriting skills to take herself a segment of the market.

 

Clive Rozario