14 November 2007 (gig)
18 November 2007
Having a lunchtime gig in Pizza Express is a clever way to get your critics to give you sparkling reviews. With drinks flowing and pizza being chomped, anyone knows that a journalist can never say no to a good old knees up with free booze. Laura Critchley circulates the venue beaming her smile and fluttering her eyelashes at everyone she could. The likes of Robbie Williams and Jamie Foxx have been enthusing about her talents, so she can’t be half bad.
She makes her way to the stage and introduces herself and uses her Scouse charm to win over her audience, who are sufficiently liquored up at this point. Dressed in a very en vogue, boho manner, and flicking her long blond locks as she performs. Her voice is sweet and very 'cutesy’ which goes with her appearance and manner. She shows that she has a good vocal range and is similar to the likes of Emma Bunton, but Bunton has definitely more pizzazz than Critchley. You can tell that her influences stem from a sort of country/pop cross over like LeAnn Rimes but she doesn’t execute them as well.
She feels she needs to explain every song, but that could be a confidence or inexperience flaw. Her pure pop songs can sound quite sickly after the first one or two and can sound like any other pop tune which is out there. She has the whole package though, a great personality, attractive and passable vocals, which are the key ingredients to any pop princess these days. The lack of originality and the generic nature of her songs makes you drift off and hope that when you come back that the song has finished.
The song that got her signed, 'Sometimes I’ which was picked up off her MySpace page, oh yes, another 'MySpace sensation’, is the most commercial track she played, and you can see why record companies pounced on her like ravenous vultures.
Her lyrical content is good even though it is obviously ridiculously mainstream, but the songs come across as wishy-washy, and she definitely didn’t make enough of an impact on her biggest critics. Maybe, more alcohol is needed next time, to try and sweeten the deal.
