On her sixth album, Harmony, Toronto singer/songwriter Serena Ryder is a soul machine. Her throaty voice and streamlined songs are a natural match for her forays here into neo-soul.
This starts in with Fall, a vibe-heavy cross section where The Supremes and early James Bond theme songs intersect. Ryder’s voice carries the weight easily.
The mood of Harmony is dramatic, made so by sparse songs and the bluesy darkness in Ryder’s voice — hints of Amy Winehouse and Adele abide.
She makes a nice collision between her folk-rock roots and retro soundtrack soul in Call Me. This autumnal song brings out an expressive vocal from Ryder, as she uses her voice to shift between texture and belting to match the evocative music.
The thematic flow of the album (one of its strong points) was achieved by Ryder and co-producers/writers, Jerrod Bettis and Jon Levine. The duo and Ryder worked in L.A. and the singer’s home studio (The Cottage) in Toronto.
In keeping with the dusky sonic landscape on Harmony (where excess is checked) some Goldfinger dust is picked up along the way. Ryder’s sound recalls British soul-pop queens of the past: Lulu, Dusty Springfield, and Shirley Bassey.
Like them, she doesn’t hit any unneeded notes or repeat herself. She’s entertaining without being shallow.
But nobody’s perfect.
Please Baby, Please has a piano ballad maudlinism and For You is a clichéd torch song chord progression.
Heavy Love moves in quickly to check this slip. It’s a steady roller that recalls Ryder’s acoustic background and its appeal is in the driving vocal and the melodic pattern. It could have been another single but, there’s already enough strength in the content of the material on Harmony. Even the “off” songs aren’t write-offs, maintaining simplicity and biting vocals from Ryder.
Harmony is a brief, emotional album that’s straight to the point.
— Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician and freelance writer who reviews recent music releases for The Morning Star.
