Album Review

Rachael Kichenside – Like The Tides

• 11th Feb 2008

The age-old singer-songwriter question of ‘how many is really necessary’ raises its head again. And as ever the answer is ‘if you’re any good then come on in, there’s room’. Rachel Kichenside’s ok. She could be great but for now I’m just going to say she’s ok. There’s too much mid-90’s North Atlantic about her, too much that makes you think she’s missed her calling as Jerry Bruckheimer’s weapon of choice for his ‘Look, Nic Cage is human too. He has sex just like the rest of us’ moments in any one of those dumb-but-still-awesome films.

In fact, three of the four tracks fit into the ‘it’s a little bit dull and un-involving’ category, but then there’s ‘Something To Say’ which is leagues above the rest of the EP. It’s warm, refreshing and a little bit cheesy. It’s beautiful. Think Au Revoir Simone keeping it really simple or Sheila Nicholls on the ‘High Fidelity’ soundtrack.

Kichenside (Is that her real name? Oh, that’s unfortunate) has got something but it gets stuck under a bit of sentimentality too often, but if she can reproduce ‘Something To Say’…