Niki King The Everlasting Energy Of Love Queen's Hall Edinburgh 10th February 2024 Review
Niki King was at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight for an exclusive launch of her new album 'The Everlasting Energy of Love', and from the moment that the band took to the stage and the music began, with a very interesting combination of harp and saxophone, it was obvious that something very unique was about to happen. Within a few moments of Niki King taking centre stage, it was also obvious that a very special songwriter and vocalist was making a huge statement with her talents and songs from her new album.
If like me you have loved this combination of classic laid-back smooth soul sounds mixing effortlessly with more upbeat funk rhythms from the first time round, then you will understand what I mean when I say that Niki King just captures all of those feelings and emotions perfectly with her songwriting and performance skills. To get anywhere near this combination of classic sounds and feeling to the music you need a very tight band of very good musicians behind you who can make the carefully constructed arrangements of the music look almost improvised. Tonight Niki King had such a band behind her with the addition of an equally talented string section.
Some people might want to call Niki King’s music retro or classic soul style, but the truth is that the best of this music first time around was simply timeless, songs, words and emotions that never age and can touch so many people in so many different ways. As a songwriter Niki King is clearly showing with 'The Everlasting Energy of Love' that her music has reached that point of just being in a place of its own and timeless too.
The range of musical styles, colours, and emotions of the songs on this album are as impressive as Niki King’s ability to perform them live on stage and you just know that she knows exactly where every beat of every song should be at the moment that it is needed. This was one of those rare and very special moments on stage for a performer where everything seemed to just align perfectly and Niki King was simply enjoying being in that very special bubble of time and enjoying this moment for everything that it could offer both her and her audience.
'The Everlasting Energy of Love' is obviously a very personal album for Niki King and writing the songs and being involved in the studio production of it has clearly been an emotional journey for her, and along that road old ghosts have been exorcised, emotional grief and pain has been reconciled with, and a very positive message of hope, light and love winning out in the end over everything else shines clear.
There are simply no weak songs on this album and “Sands of Time”, “Blanket of the Stars”, “Dark Cloud”, “Beyond This Time”, “Your Love Dries My Tears” and all the other songs performed this evening clearly show both a songwriter and a lyricist of talent and skill with a very clear vision of exactly what every song should sound like at the end of its journey. Niki King has written some fine songs for this album, but more than that, written songs that are open to almost endless re-arrangements by other artists whilst still being able to hold their own core individuality and identity.
'The Everlasting Energy of Love' as an album deserves its place amongst all those classic soul albums of earlier years.
Opening this show this evening with four songs in a 15 minute set was multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Paul Gilbody. This was far too short a time for Paul to really give us all an overview of his music, but what was here was impressive. Clearly a musician and songwriter of much potential in the future was on stage this evening and Paul Gilbody is someone to pay close attention to as if given that elusive break that he needs in the music business, something very special could happen for him.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If like me you have loved this combination of classic laid-back smooth soul sounds mixing effortlessly with more upbeat funk rhythms from the first time round, then you will understand what I mean when I say that Niki King just captures all of those feelings and emotions perfectly with her songwriting and performance skills. To get anywhere near this combination of classic sounds and feeling to the music you need a very tight band of very good musicians behind you who can make the carefully constructed arrangements of the music look almost improvised. Tonight Niki King had such a band behind her with the addition of an equally talented string section.
Some people might want to call Niki King’s music retro or classic soul style, but the truth is that the best of this music first time around was simply timeless, songs, words and emotions that never age and can touch so many people in so many different ways. As a songwriter Niki King is clearly showing with 'The Everlasting Energy of Love' that her music has reached that point of just being in a place of its own and timeless too.
The range of musical styles, colours, and emotions of the songs on this album are as impressive as Niki King’s ability to perform them live on stage and you just know that she knows exactly where every beat of every song should be at the moment that it is needed. This was one of those rare and very special moments on stage for a performer where everything seemed to just align perfectly and Niki King was simply enjoying being in that very special bubble of time and enjoying this moment for everything that it could offer both her and her audience.
'The Everlasting Energy of Love' is obviously a very personal album for Niki King and writing the songs and being involved in the studio production of it has clearly been an emotional journey for her, and along that road old ghosts have been exorcised, emotional grief and pain has been reconciled with, and a very positive message of hope, light and love winning out in the end over everything else shines clear.
There are simply no weak songs on this album and “Sands of Time”, “Blanket of the Stars”, “Dark Cloud”, “Beyond This Time”, “Your Love Dries My Tears” and all the other songs performed this evening clearly show both a songwriter and a lyricist of talent and skill with a very clear vision of exactly what every song should sound like at the end of its journey. Niki King has written some fine songs for this album, but more than that, written songs that are open to almost endless re-arrangements by other artists whilst still being able to hold their own core individuality and identity.
'The Everlasting Energy of Love' as an album deserves its place amongst all those classic soul albums of earlier years.
Opening this show this evening with four songs in a 15 minute set was multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Paul Gilbody. This was far too short a time for Paul to really give us all an overview of his music, but what was here was impressive. Clearly a musician and songwriter of much potential in the future was on stage this evening and Paul Gilbody is someone to pay close attention to as if given that elusive break that he needs in the music business, something very special could happen for him.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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