A vocal talent to watch
Husky, sweet-voiced, London based singer-songwriter Athena injects a fragile tone into the touching songs on her follow-up album to the 2009 debut Breathe With Me; tracks like All Over Again rack up the emotion with clever use of piano, cello and violin which never fail to induce skin tingling in the listener. The songs on Peeling Apples are well paced, often with moments of minimalism where Athena's emotion filled vocal talents are give room to shine.
These are essentially pop tunes, unashamedly light and airy with no attempt to mash things up for a heavier feel at any time. That's not to say there's no variation though, as vocally she lets her voice soar powerfully one moment or in another it dreamily floats away at the top of her register (the lovely Looking At Me Looking At You). There is also often a nice instrumental mix - the aforementioned strings on All Over Again, great use of keys on title track Peeling Apples and bouncy banjo and piano on Little Jane help to push things along. There are some lovely melodies too, always just on the right side of sweet so they don't cloy but instead feel dreamy and heartfelt.
Obviously in the wrong hands these kind of minimal tunes, relying on the voice talent of the songwriter, can either flop because their voice isn't up to the task or they can tend to err on the samey and you get the feeling you've heard it all somewhere before a hundred times, but this never happens here; Athena is adept at using her voice to create interest and it is more than up to the job of carrying the album. She is a talent to watch.