Nathalie Archangel - Ariel Lux
Buy the music of Nathalie Archangel here (Amazon UK)
The voice of Nathalie Archangel has always charmed, beguiled, mesmerised and elevated me, dependent on what song she is singing. The woman is a gifted vocal chameleon who imbues her delivery with the exact right emotion that the song lyrics expect and demand. Her more recent musical outings, A Higher High and Next To Me, still dominate my playlists, enslaving me in a world where narrative insight is expressed through tonal nuance and accompanied by sizzling, scintillating dance floor beats. Her latest venture couldn't be more different, yet it's no less intoxicating - no less likely to give you a giddy endorphin rush at it's creative expertise. Ariel Lux places Nathalie in a setting that is part cabaret, part musical theatre, part underground jazz club and wholly exhilarating. There's a vaudevillian vibe as harpsichord and off-kilter percussion dance with each other, giving glorious synergy to the singing of Nathalie Archangel as she spins the tale of Ariel Lux with wanton abandon. It's both warning and invitation as you are drawn inexorably into the audio-orgasmic clutches of the song's protagonist, the music and vocals symbiotically entwined to convey the anticipation and delicious danger that sends shivers up and down the spine of the listener (settling for giving you naughty tinglings in your special place). Nathalie is like a siren, luring the listener closer and closer with each note until you are a willing slave to the rhythm - forgetting that safe word with heady glee. Years ago, songs like this would shuck the norm of the pop charts yet easily find a place in the upper echelons of the top forty countdown because people were willing to embrace the innovation, the diversity and the differences (think Shakespear's Sister "Stay"; Annie Lennox "Love Song For A Vampire"). It's more difficult nowadays - radio is fixated on playing songs that sound exactly like the one you heard before. Streaming will direct you to equally similar cookie-cutter songwriting. Does that mean Ariel Lux will wither and die? Never - it's sheer moxy, personality, story driven writing, glorious melody and lush intrumentation means it will always find a home with those who seek the unexpected, embrace the unknown. Fortune favours the brave - and if Ariel Lux is the reward then I am a brave, happy man.
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