I don't follow pop music (at all) so it's a revelation to me that Mariella isn't some kind of genre-busting superstar already. With a growl and purr of the sort most commonly heard in jazz, she's my new favorite vocalist. She has it - that distinctiveness, that quality that all of the greats have that makes them instantly identifiable and instantly pleasing.
"Lovesick" is apparently the first single off a forthcoming album. The backing musicians on here are fantastic, once you get over the novelty of a track having actual people playing instruments at all. The original is slow, and the qualities of Mariella's voice would actually make this one hard to tinker with on the pitch control. The moog fits in the pocket with her voice just perfectly - the whole thing is like some mysterious lost relic of a time when labels worked with musicians rather than working against them. Not feeling the rap that comes in at 3:00 in, but it is after all supposed to be a radio edit...
The real treat comes with the Mark de Clive-Lowe mixes. Mashi starts out with a tribal drum building over what sounds like the pulse of an electric bass (the stringed kind). The track builds with a slow intensity, like a tornado filmed in high resolution and played in slow motion; the choruses are muted, understated... and then it really starts to get interesting. Mashi understands what it is to work with a vocalist of this caliber, and offsets what Quincy Jones once characterized as "torn silk vox" with minimal backing, warm strums and then solo keys that I'm only slightly uncomfortable calling "orgasmic". [ - Terry Matthew - ]
(A side note: Mariella's youtube user account is named "maryhellyeah". That's just fucking awesome.)
[ - Review by Terry Matthew / April 2011 - ]
Available: Available in the iTunes store.
Mark de Clive-Lowe Remix:
| + | Track Listing | Duration | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01: | Mariella: Lovesick (Original) | 5:21 |  |
| 02: | Mariella: Lovesick (Crisis Kid Insturmental) | 5:09 | |
| 03: | Mariella: Lovesick (Crisis Kid Remix) | 5:05 | |
| 04: | Mariella: Lovesick (Mark de Clive-Lowe Remix) | 6:34 | |
| 05: | Mariella: Lovesick (Mark de Clive-Lowe Instrumental) | 6:34 | |
Terry Matthew is the managing editor of 5 Magazine. You can contact him at 
