I must firstly apologise to Liz as she did indeed send this out in plenty of time to be reviewed before Christmas, but the end of the year became something of a reviewing nightmare for me, so it didn’t make it. Liz is of course lead singer with Dark Beauty, and through the last year she has been spreading her wings out into other musical territories as well, and here we have her version of an Annie Haslam song, another by Dark Beauty (I am presuming this is a different recording to the one from five years ago, but as I have not heard that I am not sure), plus a Christmas carol. The EP finds Liz in quite different territory to the style I am most used to hearing from her, as this is all about restraint and concentration on the voice as opposed to the more bombastic style I am more used to.
We start with “It Snows In Heaven Too”, where Liz is accompanied just by piano and some synth orchestration. I get the impression this is outside her normal comfort zone, and there are times when the vocals do not sound quite right, almost as if she is not relaxed enough into the performance. The same cannot be said for “Toby’s Wish”, which of course is far more familiar territory, and the use of a stronger arrangement also benefits it. This feels like a proper Christmas song, which although it is somewhat slower and less cheery than many feels perfectly fitting and enjoyable. We end with “O Holy Night”, which contains some picked guitar as well as piano, and out of all three this is the one which has been treated most as a classical solo vocal performance, and I can really imagine this being given as a performance in a Cathedral, with her vocals reaching up to the arches. I look forward to hearing what Liz delivers next.
Rating: 7/10
