Six Winters comprises a masterful arrangement of instruments, matched with the powerful voice of Levine and the harmonious backing vocals from Lize Wiid and Joshua Grierson. I've never heard any of the tracks on her first album, "Unspoken", but compared to "Living Room", "Six Winters" adds a whole lot more colour to Levine's repertoire.
Levine shows much more depth and range on "Six Winters", allowing a stronger emotional connection between the listener and the music. The sound is dynamic and rich, thanks to the expertise of producer and engineer, Dan Roberts, no doubt.
While "Living Room" was dotted sparsely with some good tracks ("Kites", "Nameless face", "Boat song" and "No more (a wandering)") among a dreary mix of songs that meshed from one track into another, I found it hard to pick favourites on the 12-song offering that is "Six Winters".
While "Six Winters", the track from which the album gets its name, and "Beautiful Loser", are two of the catchiest songs on the album, "Ring of Fire" is certainly the strongest; the crescendo, helped along with the backing vocals of Grierson, leads to an eruption of a perfect symphony of sound. (Listen to the original "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash) Her vocal ability, if doubted before, is loud and clear on "Where my soul does sing", matched by the attitude shift on "Not gonna cry", showing how versatile her capabilities are.
Levine is able to take ordinary words and colour them with beautiful melody. This is a great offering from Laurie Levine; however, I feel her best is yet to come. I look forward to hearing more from this progressive artist. She's certainly set the benchmark in the genre for all those South Africans who follow.
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