New Zealand based Tess Liautaud has just released a charming new song; Breezy As.
Breezy As is a song about feeling lost but hopeful. Its about finding comfort in difficult situations and learning to be sure of yourself. Certainly a positive message and similar to many of the songs that we’re reviewing here at the Send Me Your Ears studio. There’s something about the last two years that’s caused everyone, especially songwriters, to really look inward and focus on priorities.
Breezy As starts gently on electric guitar and vocals and moves quickly into a full band sound with some lovely gentle background hammond.
This is gentle Country/Americana that we imagine would be great for your playlist driving across the Southern States. Liautaud’s vocals come across clearly and confidently. There’s an almost Faith Hill positivity to them, but with just a little Meredith Brooks edge to them. The backing vocals are subtle and a nice touch throughout the song, bolstering the lead vocals.
Some country sounding electric guitar riffs fill the gaps between vocal lines well, together with solo sections where the guitar takes centre stage.
We like the breakdown section with just vocals, guitar and toms. This works well to break up the uniformity of the rest of the song. Aside from this section, the drums are simple and unobtrusive. They simply serve to help carry the voice and guitar to the end.
Standing at just over 5 minutes, Breezy As is unlikely to receive a great deal of commercial air play but may sit well with college radio and folk/Americana specialty radio. We feel that this song has great potential for sync licensing for a TV show. It reminds us of the style of music that you might have heard in Firefly Lane or Heartland perhaps.
From a production perspective, we’d suggest a slight cut at around 250Hz and 500Hz to balance out just a touch of boxiness, especially in the vocal track, as well as a wide boost centred around 5k to balance out the top end.
Breezy As is a positive, happy, chilled out Americana burst of nostalgia. Liautaud’s debut single is a promising start and gives an exciting feeling of expectation of what’s to come.