…Say That You Like Me

Alina Simone is a native Ukrainian but grew up in the suburbs of Massachusetts. This actually explains a lot. Her debut album, Everyone is Crying Out to Me Beware, is an American singer-songwriter’s dream of the album they always wanted to make with Slavic folk-instrumentation and melodies. You know all American singer-songwriter’s secretly have this dream. Unfortunately, these aspirations are not enough to generate something dynamic and endearing.

Honeyed and slowly churning, the album boasts with a smooth blend of Slavic and American folk. Cycling acoustic-electric guitars and sparse percussion make up most of the hushed soundscapes that support Simone’s - albeit standard - vocals; throaty in that slender boisterous kind of way. All of which only pays off akin to backup chorus work in a high school musical. To her credit, however, Simone’s voice does carry some passion in its bounds, even if the vocal aesthetic is a tired one by channeling the warm wholesomeness of Sarah Mclachlan instead of the hauntingly strained siren calls of PJ Harvey. Then again, it doesn’t seem as if Simone is a woman scorned considering her website biography states, “My songs are about places where nothing and everything seems to happen.”

Where it dulls quickly is when all her songs tend to meld together, not in a intriguing intentional way but instead in that listless - fair weather means. The album isn’t anything shallow or trite, it just doesn’t seem to scream out to the soul, “Love me, love me, love me!” like all great albums do. In fact, it doesn’t even shout, “Like me.” It merely offers “Here I am”. The fact that it is entirely in Ukrainian should have no impinge on if her melody were entrancing enough. The words don’t have to be understood to feel or be felt. Simone’s is one that unfortunately three-fourths of American female singer-songwriters have as well. There was a clear attempt to make something dynamic on Everyone is Crying Out to Me Beware, and it shows in the meditative, whispering instrumental sketches. Unfortunately, Simone just cannot break through and place a delicious cherry on the lethargic-lady sundae.

Michael Tenzer