Delicate voices can carry a lot more weight than anyone realizes until you hear a song like “Your Angel” from Natalie Joly – and it sets everyone straight right there on the spot. Joly’s voice is one of the more fragile of any I’ve heard in her scene for the better part of the last couple of years, and although it’s supplied with a stern backdrop that could support just about any kind of pipes, no matter the genre or depth of tonal presence, it’s the perfect canvas atop which this singer/songwriter can splatter the best and brightest forms of melodic paint we could hope to come across this spring.
With a light sizzle from the guitar parts and a presence from the percussion that is bold but never imposing on any of her lyrics, this player acts as a linchpin in a brooding arrangement centered on her charismatic lead vocal. She doesn’t sound ego-driven, and yet the voice she’s propelling into the forefront of this mix is the most thunder-stealing component of any pop single out this season. In short, this is the voice – and the song is the virtuosity.
I love the Americana bend to the harmonies, especially being that it isn’t forced upon us with an unnecessary twang, which has been the case in most of the songs I’ve heard in this genre lately. The crossover potential here is huge, both with country and pop fans, and I also think it’s worth noting how evident the rock influence over Joly is in this performance.
She sounds drawn to the mic rather than just dominant over it, which is not something I’ve been able to see anyone fake successfully. Joly has the demeanor of a natural in this single, but she also has the optimism of someone who hasn’t been jaded by the music industry and everything it can do to a career that was originally powered by a desire to express and be as one-of-a-kind as possible. Angst is essentially left at the front door in this performance, which is what I have been hoping to find in a radio-quality release since first reviewing new the pop coming out of the underground in the last few months.
I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this player before sitting down with this track, but now that I know for myself what kind of skillset Natalie Joly has in the studio, I won’t hesitate to pick up more of her new music in the future as she finds her place in the grander scheme of things. The mainstream has been lacking someone of her casual attitude for a minute now, and while she doesn’t sound like she’s gunning out of the underground intentionally, this is not an artist whose talents are going to be able to be contained by the insularity of the indie circuit for very long. Her voice is too powerful and too stirring to be left without a larger audience, and soon enough, she’s going to have one to call her very own.
Chadwick Easton