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Review:
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Valentine, full name Valentine Romanski, is an absolutely
ravishing young singer songwriter and pianist from German
who has the endorsement of none other that Sir Paul McCartney
(you know, the cheeky one in that Liverpudlian beat combo
that had a few hits), who said, and I quote, “This girl
is amazing”, I tend to agree my old Macca. A look at Amazon
Germany reveals that she has released two previous albums,
her last back in 2006, but this is the first on the mighty
Sony label, so their existence is not recognised on her
website . Love Like Gold also sees a complete and utter
change of style away from the piano ballads that dominate
these earlier works.***
Her new music is lush orchestral keyboard pop, similar
in style to Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ earth mother William
Orbit period, Goldfrapp’s more orchestral and organic album
‘The Seventh Tree’, Katie Melua’s latest release ‘The House’,
which also features William Orbit, and Within Temptation’s
gentler moments, she undoubtedly shares Sharon Den Adel’s
fashion sense. We are certainly NOT in brainless synthetic
Britney/Cheryl/Dannii, lip sync, all style and no substance
territory, thank goodness, otherwise John would throw me
off the highest floor of Progressiveland Towers.***
Groovy tangoing opening title track ‘Love Like Gold’
features a Vocoder, a long extinct, hideously complex, vocal
processing contraption that was almost impossible to use,
it was made famous on Kraftswerk’s ‘Autobahn’ and ELO’s
‘Mr. Blue Sky’ (I remember myself and Robert Plant’s keys
player Jezz Woodroffe trying to work out how to use one,
what a nightmare). The next three songs, ‘Black Sheep’,
‘White Bird’ and ‘Creatures of the Night’ (there’s an animal
theme going on here) remind me of Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’,
a song that Joe Satriani successfully sued for plagiarism
(Coldplay settled out of court for nicking his tune ‘If
I Could Fly’). These are awesome anthemic songs stuffed
full of rich multi layered vocals, catchy melodies that
stick to your memory banks like superglue, and sumptuous
synths. The next couple, ‘Superhero’ and ‘Tonight’, are
more danceable Madonna (or Madge as I call her) electro
pop tunes, time to shake a leg and dance around your handbag
or manbag. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is a dramatic and moody
Ultravox meets Within Temptation song with gorgeous strings,
followed by a pair of sweet bouncy pop tunes, ‘Catch Me’
and ‘No’ (she’s such a tease), I’m off for a whirl around
the room. The final three are real crackers, the dreamy
orchestral ‘My Town’, the fabulous ‘Nobody Knows’ which
sounds like Within Temptation gone pop, and finally the
lighter waving, or to be more health and safety conscious,
mobile phone waving anthem ‘Universe’. I mentioned in the
Ansoticca review about the forests of Europe being packed
with gothic babes, well guess where Valentine is in her
video for ‘Black Sheep’? (Available for your perusal on
the Female Voices Blog). I must get my binoculars out and
do a spot of bird watching.***
With Sony behind her and a totally new ultra commercial
sound this young lady is about to go Global with a capital
G, and you read it here first folks. I’m the guy who reviews
a lot of the power and prog metal stuff, but I found this
absolutely adorable, music to bring a smile to your face,
a spring into your step, and a little ray of sunshine into
these dark days, a love like gold 9.5 out of 10.***
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