Laura Michelle Kelly

Laura Michelle Kelly may well be a name we are going to get very familiar with. Being a known actress on the West End stage, she releases her debut album ‘The Storm'Inside'.
A collection of songs with collaborations from the likes of Jamie Cullum, Guy Chambers and Neil Hannon and selected covers this is a carefully arranged and marketed package evidently.
Giving a mark of guarantee for the offering is the choice of Producer, Marius de Vries involved in works from Bjork, David Gray and Rufus Wainwright.
Sounds good up to now but even promises made at the alter are not always everlasting.
The main problem is her breathy sweet sickly vocals which don't stand up to such lavish(musical) surroundings. It's the sort of grandeur setting of Celine Dion or Elaine Page with the voice of an inferior Kylie, a Dannii let's say. I was expecting better.
Saying that, it starts off well with a cover of Nick Drake's ‘Riverman' which apart from being a wonderful song, having less of a flush arrangement but piano full of echo and smart percussion, works well with that breathy vocal thing going. The single ‘There was a time' follows up, being the best original track, executed ‘alla Appleton' and appealing enough. But a succession of songs with arrangements for stage musicals, instead of homing in on the core of a song just doesn't fit with her vocal prowess.
A cover of Keane's ‘Somewhere only we know' is really just a plain embarrassment, like ‘Reach Out' by the Four Tops given the celestial choir treatment. Paul Weller's ‘You Do Something To Me' just does not work and somebody at the helm of the operation should have told her.
I hope the spirit behind the project was a worthy, considered one and not a total marketing ploy but it just doesn't hit the mark. We will see; Maybe I am completely wrong and she will become a quality recording artist as well as a quality actress. But then again maybe I'll finally get to meet Kylie Minogue and serenade her with my good looks and charms!