Hybridity is becoming a popular theme in all kinds of music from hip-hop to rock and country music in the past few years, but it isn’t very often that it’s made to produce a sound as full-bodied as what we get in the new album Le Olam by Alex Krawczyk. Krawczyk takes influence from across the pop spectrum, specifically the acoustic jazz school, and it shows when listening to her croon in tracks like “Remember” and “Better Days.” She’s got a natural talent she never has to force, and in this record, it’s too accessible for even discriminating listeners to ignore.
If there’s one thing I love about Le Olam, it’s that Krawczyk is never sacrificing tone just to get a catchier tune out of a song. “Turning” and “Full Moon Rising” could have been much less avant-garde in style than they wind up being here, but they’re allowed to flow freely and exhibit a singer/songwriter who doesn’t care about what her peers are using to make money. This is a vehicle for self-expression, and if you were expecting anything different, you’re going to be in for quite the shock when sitting down with any of this LP’s eleven tracks.
There’s a progressive element to the songs “I Will Take You Home,” “Calling All My Angels” and “Simple Man” that I would like to hear Krawczyk experiment with more in her next album, but not too liberally. She’s already got such a well put together sound going for her in Le Olam that I wouldn’t want her to change the fundamentals of her process, but if she’s able to withstand the exploration, there’s certainly more she could do to make this compositional style even fuller in shape. This is all a good sample, and likely not even the grandest we’re going to discover from her.
It’s rare for singer/songwriters of a special caliber to drop something amazing right off the bat, but with her debut album, Alex Krawczyk proves to be one of these exceptionally gifted players. She doesn’t play around with elements of melody and rhyme in these performances, but instead puts her heart on the line as much as she can, mostly as a means of proving her authenticity to the audience. I’ve got more than enough evidence to go off of as a music critic, and I think discerning fans who hear Le Olam are going to understand what I’m talking about.
Chadwick Easton