Comes like a goddess of gleaming eyes through a smog of blackened skies.
With a voice like Leanne Rhymes and a look resembling Jennifer Anniston you'd say Beulah would be hard to beat as a pop goddess and you may just be right. The album starts off with 'Stay', opening with chords alike to Alanis Morisette's classic 'Ironic', it soon turns into something else entirely though, a cute little jazzy piece topped off with a beautiful voice gorgeously singing overhead.
'I Can't Wait' messes around with some syncopation and overall isn't up to the same standard as the introductory track, but it's a pleasant listen that leads into 'Leaving Home' which starts with country-esque guitars in the same vein as Shania Twain, but again Beulah's own style soon rescues the track and it turns into an energetic song with a chart-worthy chorus melody.
The upcoming single 'Sweet Kinda Something' has something kinda sweet about it and something very special. Like a fifties classic it has brilliant bluesy piano and joyous guitar stabs building up into a string-laden, wonderful chorus that raises the spirits and heightens the happiness in your heart.
Seeping with post-Madonna lady-pop stylings, this album sounds as if it's from an era when pop music was at it's most elegant, it's nice to hear something angelic and soulful, especially at a time when the obsession with dirty sex, virile violence, a blatant disregard for others, a lack of general respect, guns, infatuation with money and swearing banally is very prevalent in modern music. Even Charlotte Church has gone hardcore. So when 'Nevermore' picks you up out of the dumps, thank Beulah for still having faith in the light side, hmm gorgeous…
'Circus' is home to some absolutely lovely vocal outbursts, a voice that winds and weaves through the twists of emotion and beauty so effortlessly and convincingly its hard to turn away. 'Miss Me No More' is slow and swaying like a cool breeze upon your brow on a hot summer's day, soothing, relaxing, sensuous… 'Lazy Days', in its simple praise of sleep in the haze of lazy days harks back to the halcyon glow of childhood and the ethereal atmosphere of dreaming of a perfect love, definitely another highlight on this warm and homely record. As is 'You're Gone', a ballad not too many steps away from the prowess of Ella Fitzgerald, with its glamorous evocations, slow-moving pace and soft, flowing vocals.
'Broken Seams' is a high reaching record recounting melancholic tales that leads into the ender and title-track 'Mabel and I', soft and sweet and a culmination of all that has gone before on this remarkable debut album, it lulls you out easily and gently lays you down to rest, to sleep, to dream, the end. Dallying with all musical styles and genres, from the country-clad 'Mary to the jazzed up 'Stay' this debut record is something extraordinary, certainly when you consider the condition the modern popular music scene is in, comes like a goddess of gleaming eyes through a smog of blackened skies.