Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
How do we know for certain what is The Medicine and what is the placebo, only by trial and error, by cause and control, and by taking notice of the effect the practise of listening to the mind and the soul has when taken with invited dose administered; this is the difference between that which makes you a truly better person rather than just being one who believes they are because they have been used as a sample.
Music in every form is the reason we as a collective species strive to attain a truth about ourselves, we are not clouded by misjudgement when we can hand on heart insist that sound not only makes us feel better, but alive, teeming from every pore with life; and it is to that effect that Miss Emily underscores the truth of unity and the affirmation of saluting every song as if it were a knight upon a steed waiting to tackle the injustice of so called untouchable giants.
Emily Fennel, A.K.A Miss Emily, returns with her thunderous voice in her brand new album The Medicine, and as each song endorses the totality of her truth, her aspirations, her own effect on the heartbeat of the listener, so the gala of music expertly weaves communication with on-point delivery, the true medicine being revealed and the dispensing of the soporific to where it belongs.
Miss Emily captures a rarity across the album, a willingness to explore beyond a single genre, and as tracks such as the two openers of My Freedom and Stand Together, Band Together, the groove of You Make Me Believe, Smith’s Bay drowning, andthe glory of the finale which seems to add a humanitarian aplomb mixed gently with a spiritual blessing to the intensely cool affair, Remember This Song, so the willingness to lend her voice to an array of styles, Blues, Roots, even an influence of pop, pays dividends and is remarkable and consistent.
With huge appreciation to the musicianship that surrounds her on this eternal journey, Colin Lindin, George Recile, David Santos, and Michael Hicks, The Medicine pushes the Juno nominated artist to a place where vulnerability is its own herald, where the emotion we have all felt keenly in our lives is no longer a distraction but a teacher, a guide to whom we look to inspire us to keep reaching for the creative highs that music requires.
An album of adoration, keenly woven into a narrative of exploration of behind-the-scenes tranquility; Miss Emily knows that medicine is always best administered when the patient requires a carnival of sound to boost the recovery and the speed of revitalisation of the soul.
Miss Emily’s The Medicine is available now and was released on Gypsy Soul Records.
Ian D. Hall