walking fast, faces pass
Ah, the young girl at the piano, singing her heart out about lost love and total devotion and other such themes. It's as much a feature of Jane Austen's world view as it is a modern phenomenon - the entire plot of Pride & Prejudice
would be vastly different if young ladies were not allowed to tinkle the old ivories.
and i need you
What we have here is the latest update to that cultural stereotype. Replace the attentions of Mr Darcy in his tight breeches with a pining for an indeterminate friend, move the instrument from Mr Bennett's drawing room to the streets of Anycity, et voila. One hit.
and now i wonder
The first ten seconds are nothing more than a piano figure. Then the percussion comes in. This strikes me as a mistake - there's enough going on in the song to make drums redundant. Just keep it as a piano-and-strings figure, none of this thumpety thump that does distract from both lyric and melody.
if you ever think of me
The lyric? Lost love, nothing spectacular, but the whole song is very well crafted. All the important elements repeat on a 32 bar pattern, and something is added to (or subtracted from) the mix on each pass. This is the mark of a promising talent; given space to mature, Vanessa will go far, though maybe not commercially.
do you think time would pass me by
The album, Be Not Nobody
, comes out here in August. This may be the first review penned that doesn't compare Vanessa to any other contemporary lasses at piano.