Best music to relax to
Every chick needs to unwind sometime. Luckily, that doesn’t have to mean shamelessly splurging or even going out and getting a massage or mani/pedi. Relaxation can start in the home and float beautifully through the speakers. In the days when vinyl was more standard and less antiquated, music was just as much a novelty as it was a momentary reprieve. Here are three chicks that bring us back to the good ole days…without all the institutionalized sexism, of course. Our new Etta James - Adele. Much like Etta James in her fabulous prime, the British songstress sings with a power and control far beyond her young years. The 2008 release of her debut album, 19 (also her age at the time), which featured the heartstring-pulling “Hometown Glory” and “Chasing Pavements,” highlights just this. On arguably one of the most powerful tracks on the Grammy-winning album, “Melt My Heart to Stone,” Adele showcases her impressive gift of evoking empathy through song. Her hurt is your hurt and her heartbreak is your heartbreak in identically the same way that James overwhelms listeners with her pain on the singles like 1960’s “All I Could Do Was Cry,” a song on James’s classic debut At Last!, also about being jilted by a lover. Standing aside from her contemporaries in her refusal to conform to industry standards, Adele is unique in the way that James was revolutionary - whether you liked it or not, she was going to be herself. Adele and James exude strength not only from their powerful voices but also from their admirable stances. You could say James’s successor has been discovered, at last. (Check out Adele’s cover of “Fool That I Am,” by her icon, with whom she shared the stage in 2009.) Our new Lulu - Beth Rowley. Though not much is often said about Bristolian Beth Rowley, whose debut album Little Dreamer was released to moderate success in 2008, the soft voiced singer-songwriter does draw comparisons to Scottish sensation Lulu. As showcased in the 2009 coming-of-age film An Education, set in 1960s London, Rowley can transport herself back in time with ease. Lulu got her start in a similarly themed movie, actually released in 1967, where she famously crooned the titular “To Sir, With Love” for the first time. Rowley made a small appearance as an in-house singer (go figure), showcasing her gift for romantic, dulcet tones on the melodic “You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger.” It in fact seems to be the other way around. Ms. Rowley has put quite the spell on us. (Check out her playful side on “Oh My Life.”) Our new Dusty Springfield - Duffy. Dusty Springfield burst onto the scene in the late 50s and changed music in grand ways. Springfield will forever be lauded for her signature raspy voice, which held not only unimaginable emotion, but also an inherent quality for storytelling, both traits showcased on her most well known song, “Son of a Preacher Man.” 26-year-old Duffy also has a trademark cadence that has steadily been working to her advantage. The Welsh-born songbird who we first met in 2008 with her huge single, “Mercy,” about a man who drove her crazy (in the good way, of course), has an undeniably Springfield-esqueness about her. Along with a warm embrace for the fashions of decades past, Duffy (born Aimee Ann Duffy) shares Springfield’s knack for making music that touches your heart just as it opens your soul. The sometimes-soft, but always poignant tracks that comprise Duffy’s BRIT-Award winning debut, Rockferry, have already cemented her a spot as an artist who has many years ahead of her. Whether she’s sassy, like on the independence-promoting “Delayed Devotion” or surprisingly sincere, like on the beautifully swelling ballad that is “Rockferry,” Duffy, and her honest, often, vulnerable lyrics, is sure to mesmerize, not dissimilar to another Brit with a unique nickname. So when she heartbreakingly croons, “Baby, baby, baby/Spend your time on me” on the pleading “Syrup and Honey,” she can rest assured that we wouldn’t have it any other way. (Watch her show-stopping performance at England’s Glastonbury Festival in 2009 here. Faithlynn Morris has always loved the oldies and these ladies make it equally special to fall in love with the newbies.
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