aaamusic | On 10, Sep 2012

The sheer saturation of the market with singer-songwriters that sound “a bit like that” right now makes it hard to listen to any without a slightly jaded ear, and sadly Ellie Lawson’s latest single ‘Learn’ suffers the fate of being acceptable in an ocean of soundalikes that requires any notable artist to be pretty exceptional.
‘Learn’ has a sweet melody, pitched somewhere between Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons. Lawson’s breathy, tuneful voice is in and as of itself a truly beautiful thing that redeems the song from itself, hitting every note and bringing a warmth and genuine emotion to a set of lyrics that suffer a “yeah yeah yeah” pop chorus that feels somewhat pointless in comparison with the heartfelt verses, and the music itself is the same vague watered-down R&B pop that has been flavour of the charts for some time, with the added twist of indie-folk: quiet acoustic guitars laid over tinkling, aimless keyboards and a bland drum track that could either be a lazily programmed machine or, like the rest of the instruments, overproduced to the point of feeling totally synthetic, which is not what you really want from music like this.
All in all, I have to say that Ellie Lawson’s voice is sublime. There’s no denying this fact. It’s a shame that the music accompanying it simply is not.

★★★★★

Katie H-Halinski