Connie Lim

Connie Lim's greatest asset is easily her voice, which is thoroughly put through its paces throughout her songs. In LA City she's throaty and sensual as she speaks of the beauty of her hometown, despite the problems in the City of Angels, accompanied by delicate piano work. In Walk On, she multitracks her voice, producing lively multipart harmonies with crooning oohs and aahs. She even delves into Celtic lilting in Sugar, backed by a barrage of electronic drums.

She's unafraid to go acoustic, letting her voice carry the day, while she also occasionally dabbles in deliberate autotuned effects on her dance tracks. Few artists are willing to hit both extremes, but Lim does so while making it seem effortless.

Her lyrics speak to universal themes of love, loss, and longing. At times, they feel slightly pedestrian, mostly sticking to straightforward storytelling where perhaps a more poetic approach might have produced more compelling material. However, standout tracks like "The Hunted," describing the plight of oppressed gay people in Uganda, still pack a big emotional wallop.

Throughout, her production is generally impeccable. She has a huge variety of instruments backing her at various times, but she chooses them with care. There's never a feeling of having backing tracks shoehorned in for the sake of adding sounds – even when she's in pure retrotronica mode, everything feels organic and appropriate for each track, whether it's strings or crunchy 808 synth work.

Her influences range over a wild range as well, encompassing Sarah MacLachlan, Bjork, Feist, and more. Yet, Connie Lim is clearly most influenced by Connie Lim and her life experiences. Her voice is her own, and while her songwriting is aimed at fans of singer-songwriters, it's impossible to name a single artist whose footsteps she's following in.

At the end of the day, even those who normally have little patience for singer-songwriters may find a lot to like about Connie Lim. Between her amazing smoky voice and top-flight compositional ability -backed up with her superb keyboard skills- she crafts a unique sound that appeals to virtually any fan of good female pop.

@MILCKMUSIC

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