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Reviewed by Ania Glowacz

Lisa Crawley: Up In The Air EP

Reviewed by Ania Glowacz

Lisa Crawley: Up In The Air EP

This should have been an album. Lisa Crawley has a beautiful, vulnerable and versatile voice, and an evident talent for songwriting, with her back catalogue including two albums and two previous EPs. For anyone new to her music this would serve as an ideal taster of a variety of styles and ideas, with a cohesiveness at the same time across most tracks. Breathy, beaty opener Up In The Air provides an ideal intro, an enticingly down tempo groove with her voice emoting the aching-for-love chorus over a rich orchestral backing. Piano and voice is Crawley’s stock in trade, the following two tracks similarly slow-paced and vocally rich. Showgirl reveals a complete history within one mid-tempo song, a typical Lisa Crawley number with sadly plaintive verses leading into a more upbeat chorus. “I’m not picking up the pieces scattered at my feet, I’ve been working nights since I was barely 17. With a fake ID, they all pay to believe. This is me.” And the chorus. “Just a showgirl with nothing to show, girl.” Recorded in Melbourne, her new home town, and produced by Aussie Ryan Ritchie, the EP closes with the more electronica Safe And Sound. The odd one out and a co-write, it may perhaps point towards a new musical approach, if things really are currently ‘up in the air’ for Crawley.