All-Reviews.com Music Review
Gailyn Addis

Do we really need another Alanis? Or another Shirley Manson? Or -even worse- what looks like a cheaper cross between the above plus some Madonna and some "yes-I-jumped-on-the-electronic-bandwagon-too" s uff?  I'd normally say no, but I'll give a second chance to Gailyn Addis and not just because of her pretty face. Hehe.  The level of the production is decent, but I feel that Ms. Addis and her writing/production partner Conrad Askland could have done a bit more. Some tracks are just good pop music with a soft rock or dance feel (and when I say dance I mean some Janet Jackson-ish drum loop and effected voice) and not much more; some other have a more interesting approach: "Unrestrained" is probably one of the happiest moment in the whole record. And when I say happiest I mean "one of the best", as the atmosphere is a bit dark, especially at the beginning.  "Nine Of Swords" is another exception, consisting mostly in a piano/voice ballad.

This album is confusing me; at some point I wonder what do they want to achieve: there are a lot of interesting ideas (the use of drums, guitar loops and vocal samples in "Never looked good in white", for example).  But they seem not sure of what direction these ideas will take: like if they thought "okay, good track, now are we playing it like Garbage would do, or like Betty Boo would do or maybe both of them together?" (err) ;-)   After all it's not bad... but the production would need a couple of little improvements: I would love to hear some of the tracks remixed with some strong bassline (a dub bass or one of those subliminal sub-bass things you hear in d'n'b tracks today) and maybe dirty, more slowed down drum loops (like the ones in "Waters of Babylon" -which incidentally is my favourite track on the disc- maybe a bit heavier... it seems that they have been equalized to pump up the high frequencies and remove the bass...). Another little technical note: what's that click on track seven?  I mean: I usually love the clicks and pops of scratched vinyl, but *that* one sound more like something that should have been removed from the loop. Okay, okay, I will stop being technical. I am listening to the last two tracks again.  "Waters of Babylon" is followed by a reprise of "Unstrained".  Usually the best stuff is at the beginning or the center of an album. Looks like Gailyn choosed to respect the latin sentence "dulcis in fundo" and put the best bits, i.e. her most enjoyable ambient/trip-hop efforts, at the end.  This is why I want to hear more from Ms. Addis (and a remix album of these tracks made in cooperation with some electronica dj's wouldn't be a bad idea). p.s. you can always pay a visit to Gailyn's website at http://www.gailynaddis.com