Simone White – Yakiimo (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)
November 12, 2009 by Dennis Amith · 1 Comment
A fantastic album showcasing Simone White’s vocals, songwriting ability and music. One of the most talented songwriters in America, Simone knows how to use her well-crafted lyrics artistically and paint a picture of characters and their experiences through her music. Overall, a wonderful album!
ARTIST: Simone White
ALBUM: Yakimo
LABEL: Honest Jons Records
DURATION: 35:04
RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2009
- Bunny in a Bunny Suit
- Candy Bark Killer
- Victoria Anne
- Baby Lie Down With Me
- Yakiimo
- A Girl You Never Met
- Without A Sound
- Train Song
- Your Stop
- Olivia
- Let the Cold Wind Blow
- St. Louis Blues
California-based music artist Simone White is known for her beautiful Indie-folk songs. Born from a performing arts family as her mother is a folksinger, her father a sculptor and her grandmother who was a burlesque dancer, Simone continues the family artistic lineage known for her beautiful vocals, haunting and bittersweet melodies but most of all, lyrics that are so well-written that once you listen to her music or a track, you find yourself zeroing in on her lyrics because she’s able to craft almost a story with each song that she has written.
If anything, Simone White is starting to receive a lot of attention. Her music has been featured on the CW show “90210″ and is well-known in the UK for her song “The Beep Beep Song” featured on a commercial for Audi R8 in Europe. But she also was noticed by Rolling Stone Magazine which proclaimed the singer/songwriter as “one of the great American songwriters”. Needless to say that, Simone White is an artist in such a high demand and she performs all over the world, showcasing her enchanting music and captivating listeners with her vocals and music.
Simone White’s third full-length album “Yakiimo” (her second through Honest Jons Records) features collaborations with Frank Bango and Richy Vesecky (which she sings a few covers of their songs), while writing seven songs from the album. And yet again, Simone’s “Yakiimo” showcases her haunting melodies but within each melody is this beautiful voice that just emerges almost in a storybook style with her well-crafted lyrics.
The album features solid tracks such as the cover of Frank Bango’s “Bunny in a Bunny Suit”. All that is needed is Simone and her acoustic guitar singing about a person that changes herself for others and now questions those changes and herself. “Candy Bar Killer” is a western, country-folk style of track. “Victoria Anne” is one of those songs that you just zero-in on Simone White’s lyrics and just smile.
My favorite track on the album “Baby Lie Down With Me” is an enjoyable, love song featuring wonderful songwriting, a great melody and vocals.
The title track of the album, “Yakiimo” is literally sweet potatoes sold in Japan and Simone White literally sings about the food and purchasing it and reflects on the warmth of the sweet potato and asks “was she yakiimo?”
While there are some happy tracks on the album, there are some dark tracks as well such as “A Girl You Never Met” as Simone writes about breaking up and getting rid of all those items that a couple shared. Definitely a song that you want to listen to during a breakup. And then there is a track like “Olivia” which is like a track about obsession and the final track “St Louis Blues” about having an affair.
Simone White delivers with “Yakiimo”. You get tracks that vary in musical styles that although is guitar-driven, you get a little folk, blues and even western-country/rock. But it’s this album that really does showcase Simone White’s songwriting ability. She knows how to tell a story through her music and because of that, you don’t listen to a song once or twice, you listen as you embrace her vocals and music but then you hear the lyrics and like an artist painting on a canvas to tell a story, Simone White’s tracks paints a picture of an individual going through situations which can be happy, self-reflective and dark.
Overall, a wonderful album and an artist worth checking out! Definitely recommended!
