Single Reviews by EDF and Mark Bayross
Music Review by EDF
Taken from LOVE IN THE TIME OF SCIENCE album, TO BE FREE is remixed to speed up the track to make it chart friendly. This is not a bad thing as the song itself stands out from the production. Remixed by Tore Johansson, this stirs towards Bjork territory and you might be forgiven in believing that it was Bjork herself singing this. Torrini is one of the best vocalists to recently come onto the music scene and hopefully this track will make people sit up and notice.
As for the other tracks on the single, there is the Future Shock TO BE FREE Vocal Club Mix, which uses the slower vocals from the album. Then there’s UNEMPLOYED IN SUMMERTIME which itself is a great track but is unfortunately stripped apart by a garage mix.
Music Review by Mark Bayross
23 year-old Emiliana Torrini seems to have come from out of nowhere to become the latest hotly-tipped chanteuse to conquer the airwaves. Half-Italian and half-Icelandic, she is already well established across Europe, and her debut album, LOVE IN THE TIME OF SCIENCE, has sold 60,000 copies.
TO BE FREE was originally released as a single last year, but with Ms Torrini now gaining column inches supporting such major names as Gabrielle and Sting, the time is obviously right for a fresh attack on the charts.
Produced by Roland Orzabal, formerly of Tears For Fears, and mixed (this time around) by Tore Johansson of the Cardigans, the song is a fast-paced, string-laden slice of electronica, graced by some suitably sultry vocals. It’s catchy and dramatic, but not as overblown as fellow Scandinavian Andreas Johnson, now (to quote “Spinal Tap”) residing in the “Where are they now?” category.
Accompanying the obligatory remix, is a curious garage version of previous single UNEMPLOYED IN SUMMERTIME (co-written with David Bowie) where MC Rankin raps alongside Emiliana’s Suzanne Vega-ish vocals over spartan garage beats. Not my cup of tea, but different enough from the A-side to deserve some praise.
Nothing for Bjork to worry about, but bound to be all over the radio very soon.
