Connie Kis Andersen

Connie Kis Andersen

Self-Titled

** ½ 

Turn It Up/ On the Other Side Of Midnight/ A Man In Boots/ Angels All Around Us/ Pearls For the World/ Steamy Dreams/ Life’s Railway To Heaven/ It Won’t Set You Free/ A Lover Like You/ Give The Games A Miss/ My Time Again/ Where My Heart Was Born

Producer: Doug Wayne

Kismana  Music CKA06

44:15

The United States views itself as being a trend setter. The danger in this goal is that the trend becomes important. Style easily trumps substance in many instances. A trend which, though highlighted in the charts of all genres, is most noticeable in the field of Country.

I know this is often the complaint of those growing older, but the facts speak for themselves. I challenge you to find one track on a Gloriana release that isn’t merely product. Art that attempts to discuss the human condition is not the goal of such releases. However, shampoo and conditioner sales have been shown to spike with their chart entrances. 

For the understated Connie Kis Andersen, craftsmanship is brought to the fore. One would imagine that she would rather let the music speak for itself anyway, which it has in her native Australia. Connie was awarded Best Female Country Music Artist 2010 and 2011 from Western Australia.

Most of the tracks assembled here make you quickly think of others but there is no one person to which you can make a comparison. Although that makes for a plus in my book, (an artist being their own person) it may provide an additional obstacle for her in a land where everything often sounds the same.

With a nice production found among the tracks, only two stand out as being truly less than the other ten. Coincidentally, these two, “A Lover Like You” and “My Time Again” both offer thankful sentiments to the other partner in a relationship.

Three others, “Pearls From The World”, “Life’s Railway To Heaven”, and “Angels All Around Us”, serve to remind us to look for all the good that is in and around our lives. All three ride a fine line of being overly sentimental, but do manage unlike the two previously mentioned tracks.  

Several tracks are self explanatory, which is again a slippery slope. In “Turn It Up”, the line “Turn it up” is followed, as one might guess, by “And give me more, more, more.” A bit obvious, but it serves ably as a nice lead track. “Steamy Dreams”, the lead single, is nothing but self explanatory……. (But, oh, how I do enjoy a woman being somewhat aggressive in her wants.) “On The Other Side of Midnight” offers a similar sentiment and deserves similar, maybe a bit less, praise.

“Man In Boots” tells of a woman explaining to a friend her preference for a man in boots as opposed to a man in a suit. Yes, you may have got that from the title but I am certain that you would not expect the line “I want a horizontal cowboy in a Stetson Hat”. What a line!! My favorite of the twelve tracks for sure and probably the most country in arrangement.

I also enjoyed both “Give The Games A Miss” and “It Won’t Set You Free”. The faster paced “Give The Games A Miss” is as much fun as you can have in saying let’s stop all the games. In “It Won’t Set You Free” Connie reminds her partner that finding love in someone else’s arms won’t set him free from his troubles. (A Country sentiment for certain!). However, I found myself while listening, wondering what Gretchen Wilson could do with both of these tracks. 

“Where My Heart Was Born” finds Connie in a bit of an autobiographical mood, and explains how she has felt about coming to the States and the promises such a move can offer.  

It will be interesting to see what happens next for Connie. Knowing that even once wildly successful American artists struggle to maintain attention in America, Connie has an uphill battle to climb. Which, truth be told, is unfortunate.