The following article was submitted by Marie Rousseau:

When New Year Comes Around – Sophie Madeleine When New Year Comes Around – Sophie Madeleine (Buy)

Brighton rose, Sophie Madeleine is a newcomer on the music scene; her first album Love.Life.Ukulele was recently released. Nevertheless, the recent MA Songwriting Course graduate has been active on YouTube since 2009.

Madeleine’s signature instrument is the ukulele, of which she says, “It’s […] so much nicer to pick up and play than a guitar – it’s quite a dainty little instrument!” [1] I couldn’t agree more, having just bough a ukulele myself.  Madeleine’s songs resonate with that bright softness that could also be used to characterize her voice. Her first single “Take Your Love With Me”, is perfectly suited to its ukulele accompaniment and its acoustic resonance renders it a smooth and memorable listen. Like all albums, some songs are unique, some are déjà heard and some are in between.

“Who Will Buy” and “When New Year Comes Around” are pleasant surprises, the latter including an interesting beat with claps and a complementary flute. However “Wave Goodbye” is too heavily laden with mournful clichés. “I Can’t Just Stop Myself” could fall into that same trap but narrowly avoids it. Lastly Hurry Locomotive features interesting lyrics and a gradual increase in tempo craftily mirroring the speeding up of train.

Overall, this album is a full of sweet love songs, some more memorable than others but all worthy of a listen. If you like ukuleles and soothing female vocals, you should be drawn to Love.Life.Ukulele.

—–> Sophie Madeleine on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace <—–

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[1] Full interview at http://ukulelehunt.com/2009/03/09/sophie-madeline/
Photo courtesy of Bethany Cissel