Leah Turner is another in a recent line of new female country artists trying to break onto the scene. Joining acts such as Lucy Hale and Jamie Lynn Spears, the country pop starlet has probably been the most buzzed about of those three, yet her first single ‘Take The Keys’ only reached #37 on country radio, with her latest track ‘Pull Me Back’ only at #52 so far. There’s no doubt the marginalization of women is an overriding problem on today’s country charts, and as always the women are split into two categories: the more traditional, storytelling, songwriter types such as Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark, and the crossover pop princesses who might not even be considered country without such labelling.
I say that in a critical fashion; those who know my writing know I am not the biggest fan of country pop, although I make my exceptions based on merit. When I first heard ‘Take The Keys’ I was bowled over by how polished and Hollywood it sounded, how much the chorus melody ripped off Avril Lavigne’s pop smash ‘Here’s To Never Growing Up’ (I believe they were written/recorded around a similar time, make of that what you will), and how much Leah was drowned in over-the-top production, electronic effects sprinkled liberally over the track easily with the possibility of auto-tune to contend with. The content, too, simply consisted of a teenagey request to go driving with said object of infatuation – pleasant enough, and with an added injection of sass, but boring, and old ground. Leah repeats such a focus on car references in ‘Beat Up Bronco’, a mid-tempo ballad led by mandolin and acoustic guitar before all this is discarded in favor of full pop fare.
Sadly, that is my one huge problem with this EP. It’s over-produced, so over-produced. Although ‘Bless My Heart’ is full of fiery self-confidence and has an actual banjo in the mix, every instrument is turned up to 11 meaning that Leah is struggling to be heard over the racket, which is particularly bad when that racket consists of a ton of different melody lines with clashing rhythms. It’s totally chaotic and it sounds like a mess, meaning the delicate nuances of each song are not allowed the space to breathe or the ability to shine out; instead, the cluttered mixes are off-putting and make it easy to write her off as a wannabe pop artist. To be honest, it’s hard to say whether I would like the EP if it had been produced by someone who knew what they were doing. Certainly the relationship insecurities of ‘Pull Me Back’ sound great on paper, and there is some evidence of highlighting the deeper touches of human deliberation and fear that I would love to be explored more, but it’s impossible to really take it seriously while there’s a heavy R&B beat and a ton of other stuff going on.
Leah Turner is probably a good singer. Certainly the smokey, husky tones of her voice make it unmistakable, and that is a huge help when you’re trying to get people to remember you. I’m sure that she can probably belt songs really well and deliver some great raw performances. But shrouded in vocal effects and drowned in extra harmonies and surrounded by so many instruments, she could well just be an auto-tuned bimbo. And that’s not a great sound to have when you’re trying to break into country. My other problem is just how pop it really is. There’s pop and there’s pop, and this is taking it to extremes a little bit. Apart from excessive mandolin use and more of a southern rock formula on ‘My Finger’ (a great f— you to a cheating fiancé), there really is no references to country and it feels a little odd that she would have abandoned hotshot producers in LA to come to Nashville and just produce pretty similar stuff.
I hope, for her own sake, that for her debut LP Leah turns to a better producing team than Cary Barlowe, Jesse Frasure and Jim Catino. Really, she deserves to be heard in a better light, and I would like to give her a fair chance as an artist that doesn’t involve synths and drum loops making me immediately want to turn it off. And if country radio’s acceptance of her music is anything to go by, they kind of agree with me.
