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Crushing, by Sarah RabDAU - Independent track

The verdict: Barely Hanging on
Rating:3/5

Listen on her MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/sarahrabdau
http://www.sarahrabdau.com/
I liked this song, but I needed those lyrics. It was just too hard for me to figure out what the song was about. Sarah's voice has a fantastic richness of expression, and the music is innovative, dynamic and very satisfying.
The verdict: Barely Hanging on
Rating:3/5

Listen on her MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/sarahrabdau
http://www.sarahrabdau.com/

Melody - 4/5
Very strong hook. The verse and refrain are organically well crafted to work together. They are the good form of repetitive. Sometimes it can be monotonous. In this song, there is always a new element, whether it be a different melodic turn, way of phrasing or arrangement texture, that keeps the song growing. When this is done well, repetitive becomes almost hypnotic, and that can be a really good thing.

Then, the bridge really builds the song brilliantly. Good compositional work here.

Lyrics - ? --See notes on performance below.

Performance - 2/5
Here's where I had some trouble. I could not decipher the lyrics. It wasn't the mix, it was the performance. Sarah has adopted the habit of many singers in having an idiosyncratic pronunciation. That's fine, but on this track it rendered many of the important lines impossible for me to understand. She needs to enunciate better, even at the expense of her pronunciation style.

What good is saying something powerful if only part of your audience can actually make out your words? I'm sure after a few more listens I'd get them, but that's unfair to ask of a listener.

Vocally she has a unique instrument. She's not a Streisand style belter, and I think that's a huge asset to her. Her voice is immediately identifiable, and has lots of expression to it. There were a couple of pushes on high notes for her, where the rich timbre slightly changed. i would either work those through vocally to be seemless or take the key down, or cover it in the arrangement with some doubling effects.

Arrangement - Kudos on the arrangement. It builds a beautiful arc from the simple, slightly discordant, intro to the full pathos of the climax to the end. A lot of artistic thought went into this, and the peaceful opening with that one note that's just a little off conveys the unease of the song eloquently.

Recording - I (not an engineer, so take with the grain of salt) felt that the mix was fine. The first sound chosen was a little too "Casio home keyboard" for my taste, but that's nitpicking. The vocals were right up front in the mix, which I like, and the balance was smooth.

Summary: I liked this song, but I needed those lyrics. It was just too hard for me to figure out what the song was about. Sarah's voice has a fantastic richness of expression, and the music is innovative, dynamic and very satisfying.

27 Sep, 2008 | reviewer

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