LISSIE
CATCHING THE TIGER

Lissie is currently beng tuted around the United Kingdom as the new Stevie Nicks, but on the strength of this debut album it’s hard to see why. A marketer’s nightmare, Lissie seems to have acted like a sponge and soaked up influences running the gamut of organic, bluesey rock and pop, and cherry-picked the best elements of all of them in an attempt to create her own voice and style, but she’s a little way off that yet.

In the meantime, her influences show through with a strong familiarity to Lissie’s debut album which is as beguiling as it is confusing. Is it the Stevie Nicks timbre of her white-witch voice? The Tori Amos quirkiness? The indie freak flag flying a la Emilliana Torrini? The spectre of the folkier pastoral side of Led Zeppelin which permeates the album? The soft and warm Allison Krauss-ish country-folk inflections? The reflection of the oh-so-chic French pop of Fabienne del Sol? There’s a little of all these things and more – Lissie undeniably has great potential, but she needs to choose a direction and define who SHE is a little more before the big time beckons.

Shane Rockpit