Chandelier

Rachael Sage's 13-track album, Chandelier, has beautiful melodies and vocals in it, as well as interesting lyrics. A grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Sage writes lyrics using literary devices such as metaphor and anthropomorphism, creating some vivid imagery. She also plays keyboards on the album, joined by Russ Johnson on trumpet, Dean Sharp on percussion, David Egger on cello and Todd Sickafoose on bass. The humming background chorus and Johnson's trumpet at the beginning of "Moonlight and Fireflies" make a great introduction for the rises and falls in the song. Sage's low-pitched vocals sound breathy, as she has a habit of expelling the last of her breath when she finishes a word in her lyrics. On "Site-Seeing" and "Hunger in John," however, I felt as if Sage had an effect added over her vocals, the artificiality detracting from her voice's natural beauty. I enjoyed the music in "Site-Seeing," which, with its percussion and soulful trumpet, sounds different from the other folk-pop tracks on the album. Chandelier is due to be released this spring.