Crystal Starr brings us her NZ Music Month single Standing Still. Led by her acoustic guitar, Crystal has delivered a very powerful, multi-layered song for us here, and it’s very much worthy of your attention.

Delivering is something Taranaki appears to be doing routinely at the moment. I’m very much a beneficiary of this as I get previews of a lot of the tracks coming your way, so yay for me from me! With Standing Still our lady Crystal is singing about the journey to true love through the tribulations and errors, to confirm you’ve found the “one”. When a lyricist finds depth in a love song it can be quite a compelling listen, and we’ve got that here so pay attention and Crystal will ring a few bells of recognition for you.

We’ve got a sweet blend of the warm acoustic guitar opening the track, with built up add-ons of bass, drums, keys and other gentle tools of trade as we go. Studio work at Swamp Shack, mastered by Chris Foreman, has again paid dividends for Crystal and her collaborators Jack Moser on keys, Chris Lewis on Mandolin and Richard Grant on bass. A good engineer can only work with what he/she/they have got though, and the musicians have delivered.

That can certainly be said for Crystal‘s vocal performance. Her last track I likened to Christine McVie. This performance is even more confident and Crystal runs through her vocal range from mezzo to soprano and to the top of that range too. It’s a strong vocal delivery, and emotive. It brings the organic side of the song to the stars. When this one gets delivered live it’s going to turn heads.

This should be given licensing opportunities for soundtracks and the like. It’s got more potential than just sitting on Spotify and a few spins on the radio. A slightly bittersweet melody, leaning more to the sweet than the bitter, it doesn’t overly sugarcoat the message. Well considered.

My congratulations to Crystal Starr on this release. Outstanding, and memorable. Find it on Spotify. Go on – I just told you to!