The Sheffield Scenester

20 year old Sheffield solo artist Chelsea Alice Scott has recently released her debut EP ‘Lucky Girl’ it’s available to purchase from Amazon, I-Tunes & Spotify. She sent it across to The Sheffield Scenester for us to have a listen to, and here is what we think….

Firstly, I’d like to clarify that my musical taste wouldn’t normally follow the path which Chelsea’s does, so if my review doesn’t seem very knowledgeable I can only apologise. Indeed, when I had a look through Chelsea’s MySpace page and saw a list of musical influences including Christina Aguilera, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion & James Morrison I honestly didn’t know where to start! However, when I popped the EP on and listened to opening track ‘Lucky Girl’ I was pleasantly surprised.

Instantly it was noticeable that a lot of time had been spent on the production of the track and Chelsea has a lovely enchanting voice which really shines through. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me comparing her vocal style to that of Ellie Goulding who has herself had great success over the past couple of years.

‘Lucky Girl’ has it’s own video readily available to view on You Tube and it has already had hundreds of views. At times during the opening song the nicely played acoustic guitar does come across slightly too loud but that’s the only negative I could pick up on, throughout the track the backing vocals are beautifully cut in to meet the lead vocal and Chelsea should be really proud of her opening gambit.

As with ‘Lucky Girl’ Chelsea is helped out on acoustic guitar with her friend Philippa Hanna for second track ‘It’s Not Over’. Philippa seems to have worked alongside Chelsea for the best part of the four years Chelsea has been singing/songwriting officially, as her name pops up on several of the back catalogue tracks still knocking around on MySpace etc, including a couple of cover versions where there girls have worked together. ‘It’s Not Over’ starts with an acoustic guitar part which is a distant cousin of ‘Wonderwall’ and when backed up with keyboard and the lead vocal which is a slower, more reflective track than that of the single. Chelsea seems to put more feeling into this track and the added emotion mixed with the doubling up of acoustic guitars makes for a great song. As I said at the start of the review I may be a little naïve where songs like this are concerns but for me ‘It’s Not Over’ stands up to anything I’ve heard by Taylor Swift or some of the other young female artists around at the moment. This for me is the best one of the four available on this EP.

‘Mannequin’ is another predominantly acoustic offering, again more of the same with another well sung, well produced vocal from Chelsea. Doubling up the vocal track for the majority of the song definitely works to it’s advantage, and the subtle piano touches throughout again add to the overall feeling of the track. The percussion provided is basic, yet it doesn’t need to be anymore than this, as it would then seem out of place. A lot of time has gone into the making of this EP and again in ‘Mannequin’ there is proof of that throughout.

Final track ‘Raindrops’ is arguably Chelsea’s best vocal track on the EP, she just seems to get it spot on here. A slight negative could be that the song is relatively similar to previous track ‘Mannequin’, if anything I may have swapped around the order to use ‘It’s Not Over’ to separate them, but that is literally the only slight downside I can find with the EP. ‘Raindrops’ has a slow, final song feel about it and again the story is played out beautifully.

Chelsea Alice Scott may not be the usual type of artist which I generally go for....but I’m surprised to find myself typing that she was a refreshing change, she is obviously a very talented young lady and I wish her every success for the future. Chelsea already has a large gigography which includes slots at The Boardwalk, The Frog & last summer’s Tramlines festival amongst others, so look out for her promoting her debut EP ‘Lucky Girl’ around Sheffield over the coming months.

Words by James Whitworth