Eliza Rickman appeared here not all that long ago with her new video for her 2012 track, Start With Goodbye, Stop With Hello, from her long-player of that same year, O You Sinners. Footnotes For Spring (October 2015), picks up where O You Sinners left off-with both the good and the bad. There’s no denying Eliza Rickman’s beautiful bell-like soprano voice. Her songs are always interesting and fun, but as with O You Sinners, the latest long-player suffers from one flaw that is very irritating.

What flaw you ask?  Well it is simply the loudness wars argument all over again. For those of you who have listened to music often and understand the value of a good mix, you will immediately hear the problem when listening to Ms. Rickman’s music.  Everything is forward in the mix, some more than others. It’s almost like the man at the mixing board only had one level to deal with-full on, and that is too bad because Ms. Rickman deserves to be heard within the context of a proper mix.  

With that argument out of the way, there are some lovely moments in the musical composition, orchestration and absolutely with Ms. Rickman’s vocals.  Vodka doesn’t post music that isn’t enjoyed by us, so you need to keep the argument in the context it was meant to be-constructive criticism. Eliza Rickman’s voice alone is worth the price of admission. She has a natural vibrato and an easy flowing way with phrasing. 

So, by all means check out Eliza Rickman’s latest offering, and feel free to dig back to the equally lovely-and appalling-O You Sinners as well.  You can find more information on Eliza Rickman by visiting  her web site. Purchase copies of either long-player on her bandcamp.com site, and if you are in the production and mixing camp of Eliza’s entourage, well, take some lessons.

Note: The Balcony TV rendition of Lark Of My Heart from Footnotes For Spring is blissfully without the production values of the long-player.