Time to give some props to this lovely lady you see pictured above. I haven't mentioned her before, nor have I heard before this month. Her name is Gemma Ray, not to be confused with Fever Ray or Gamma Ray. She's a British singer-songwriter who released her debut LP in 2009 entitled Lights Out, Zoltar! I only listen to it recently, and my reaction was, "WTF? Why didn't I hear this before?" She's a doll, she's fantastic, she knocks it out of the park. She deliverers beautifully constructed orchestral pop song that can soundtrack Douglas Sirk melodramas from the 50s and 60s. Then she can transition into gnarly and snarly guitar driven girl group pop-rock.
She only caught my attention recently when she covered the Sparks' song "How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall". Not only did she covered it, Sparks played the music. Thus, her two-song release Gemma Ray Sings Sparks with Sparks is a bad ass idea. The other song she covers is Eaten By The Monster Of Love. I'll do you a favor and embed the Carnegie song at the end of this post.
So with that in mind, I had to see Gemma for myself to confirm that she's one to pay attention. She stuck to new material that will be featured on her sophomore album, Island Fire. Let me tell you this about Gemma, not only she's a fine performer with a lovely voice, but she plays guitar with a big chef's knife. I have not seen that. Have you seen that before?
The material is different from her previous work -- it's much more in the souflul/jazzy torch song style mixed with some atmospheric, middle-of-the-road attitude in the Anna Calvi/Hope Sandoval vein. I think Gemma can do anything -- cover 80s bands, grandiose orchestra pop, midnight love songs. Somebody get this lady on TV. If she doesn't get some recognition, than too bad for the world.
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