Rissi Palmer – Revival
self release
9 songs time – 37:38
Your first impressions can sometimes make you look foolish. Jumping to conclusions isn’t a good thing. From seeing her photo with her with angel wings with a kind of psychedelic hippie dippy background, I really didn’t know what to expect. Come to find out I wasn’t that far off the mark. I do pick up kind of a “Let The Sunshine In” “Hair” vibe from the music. Wait…This is a compliment. Strangely her website refers to her as a country singer. I see a bit of a country twinge on one track. I find her music hard categorize. Much of it has a breezy fantastical sound. The whole CD has an uplifting other-worldly quality to it. Another plus is that Rissi possesses just a lovely voice. The album credits and website give no musician credits. It is mainly bare bones lushness with strings, sparse percussion, keyboards, guitars and swirling backing vocals. Videos show Rissi playing acoustic guitar. She shares co-writing credit on all songs.
The message of “Seeds” is stand your ground. The stomping, uplifting beat makes me want to join a cause of some sort. Her voice is in my opinion is much more appealing than most of the mainstream singers out there. “Breathe In, Breathe Out” floats by on a cloud of acoustic guitar, strings and ethereal backing vocals. “Ghost” has a haunting quality to it(no pun intended). Rissi’s voice has a more pronounced yearning quality here. Whatever she’s selling I’m buying.
Trumpets add to the funk on the rhythmic tour de force of “Speak On It”. The uplifting spirit ensues on “Little Black Boy, Little Black Girl”. She laments a miscarriage she had on the lovingly moving “You Were Here”, underscored by wistful cellos. The only tune here that is country-ish. Electric guitar and organ funk up the title song, that appropriately sounds like a “Revival”. “Seeds” reappears in a stripped down version. Any excuse to enjoy that marvelous voice once again is fine with me.
Give this music any label you like, I’ll call it joyful, spirit building, wonderful music. It just seems to wash over you. The combination of feelings and lyrics is hard to beat. Rissi’s music is pretty much one of a kind and the kind I like.
