Adri-Anne Ralph has just released a new song, Give Up So Easy. We’ve been enjoying it in our ears today!
The moment the vocals came in on Give Up So Easy, we all said “Whitney” in unison. I’m pretty sure you can’t get higher praise than that for a soul vocalist.
Adri-Anne Ralph has a confident voice that just soars. Throughout this track we are treated to some fantastic and very clear vocal gymnastics. The control in Ralph’s head voice is superb, she uses twang sparingly but effectively, there’s some real power in her low notes which is rare for younger singers and the voice has some really classy soul to it.
At about 4 minutes in, the vocal line “what am I supposed to do” gave us visible goosebumps! There’s just a moment of power that displays some virtuoso belt technique. I heard some Alicia Keys quality vocal techniques in Adi-Anne’s voice too.
Aside from the lead vocals, there’s some expertly placed backing vocals that bolster the lead without dominating.
This song had us all nodding. A real slow grooving song with some euphoric moments of rise and fall. From moments of real thunder in the low end to just vocals and piano, this song takes you on an emotional journey from start to finish. I like the electric guitar on the fade out. A nice touch and one which shows some real versatility in the songwriting and composition decisions.
From my production point of view, I’d suggest a tiny dip in the EQ around 1-2kHz to dip out some of the “honk” in the overall sound of the track (maybe the piano?) and an overall boost in the top end for more air and brightness, whilst notching out a dip around 10-11kHz to avoid raising the sibilance too much.
I’m really impressed with this latest track from Adr-Anne Ralph. Standing at almost 5 minutes it may not be a commercial track but I can see this song doing well on independent radio shows that are dedicated to Soul and Jazz. Great work!