Natalie Prass | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Raised in Richmond, Virginia, singer/songwriter Natalie Prass began her career in her adopted home of Nashville, where she spent a number of years co-writing and backing up other artists before heading out on her own in 2009. With her delicate songbird voice and sophisticated sense of songcraft, she offers a striking sound that features elements of Dusty Springfields blue-eyed soul and Harry Nilssons clever pop orchestrations, all filtered into her own uniquely understated style. A pair of self-released EPs (2009s Small & Sweet and 2011s Sense of Transcendence) preceded her debut album, which was recorded in 2012 but not released until 2015. Returning to Richmond, she hooked up with artist/producer and old high-school friend Matthew E. White, whose decidedly retro label Spacebomb Records provides a full-service staff of musicians and arrangers for each of their projects. Working alongside White and arranger Trey Pollard, Prass and the Spacebomb team crafted her elegant, horn and string-heavy debut at a studio in Burlington, Vermont in 2012. The finished album was temporarily shelved while the label promoted several already scheduled releases. While waiting for its eventual release, Prass joined Jenny Lewis band for a series of tours and continued writing new solo material. The years spent on the shelf only bolstered the albums growing reputation, and by the time Prass self-titled debut saw the light of day in January 2015, it was highly anticipated and critically well-received. After a year of touring her breakout release, Prass scheduled sessions to begin recording her follow-up. Jarred by the 2016 presidential election, she ended up scrapping all of the material shed previously written and spent the following months crafting an entirely new set of songs bearing a strong feminist message and defiant celebratory feel. Recorded again with White and his Spacebomb crew, The Future and the Past stripped away the lush arrangements of her debut in favor of a leaner, more groove-based sound. The album was released in early 2018. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: Sense of Transcendence EP Released: 2011-11-15 Tracks: 6 Duration: 25:53 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 So Silent So Strong (04:17) 2 Roses (I Won’t Do a Thing) (05:20) 3 Bird of Prey (04:24) 4 Sand Dunes (03:37) 5 Empty as a Plate (03:53) 6 Violently (04:22) |
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: Natalie Prass Released: 2015-01-27 Tracks: 9 Duration: 39:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 My Baby Don’t Understand Me (05:12) 2 Bird of Prey (05:22) 3 Your Fool (03:16) 4 Christy (03:53) 5 Why Don’t You Believe in Me (03:54) 6 Violently (05:44) 7 Never Over You (03:59) 8 Reprise (03:44) 9 It Is You (04:01) |
| Natalie Prass : Allmusic album Review : Based in Nashville and a veteran of Jenny Lewis touring band, Natalie Prass certainly has her share of Americana roots, something thats evident on her eponymous 2015 debut. Its a bit too easy to make too much of those Southern-fried roots, however, a move that would suggest the album is steeped in the humid reaches of the Delta and that Prass possesses a bit of a husky growl in her voice, neither of which is true. At times, Natalie Prass does indeed proceed at a slow, sultry crawl that suggests such earlier blue-eyed soul masterpieces as Dusty in Memphis, but Prass is a pretty, delicate singer whose exacting phrasing pushes her album toward the West Coast in a manner not dissimilar to Jenny Lewis. This, in turn, brings the record closer to the confines of Laurel Canyon of the 70s and sometimes even the epicenter of the Hollywood of the 60s, particularly when the record ends on "It Is You," a note of whimsy thats a tip of the hat to Harry Nilsson. All this means is that Prass -- with the assistance of Spacebomb head Matthew E. White, whose success with his own Big Inner in 2012 delayed the release of Natalies record by nearly three years -- has created an appealingly classicist work that draws heavily from a singer/songwriter tradition instituted in the 70s (it even lasts a brisk 40 minutes and nine songs, just like an LP from 1971) but isnt weighed down by its heritage. Whenever the album floats upon its orchestrations or sighs along with its rich swaths of brass, theres a lightness to Natalie Prass, a lightness that also reflects in songs that are sweetly melancholic, not sad. So enveloping is the sound that it can sometimes be easy to overlook Prass songs, which are as exquisitely crafted as her albums production. Her eye for telling romantic details and gift for gorgeous, lilting melodies mean this debut sinks its hooks in deep and soon seems to belong alongside the classics it so plainly resembles. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: Side by Side (live at Spacebomb Studios) Released: 2015-11-20 Tracks: 5 Duration: 20:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 My Baby Don’t Understand Me (live) (05:14) 2 Caught Up in the Rapture (live) (04:54) 3 Christy (live) (04:02) 4 Sound of Silence (live) (02:49) 5 REALiTi (live) (03:19) |
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: The Future and the Past Released: 2018-06-01 Tracks: 12 Duration: 45:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Oh My (03:15) 2 Short Court Style (03:43) 3 Interlude: Your Fire (00:32) 4 The Fire (03:27) 5 Hot for the Mountain (04:31) 6 Lost (03:10) 7 Sisters (04:36) 8 Never Too Late (03:49) 9 Ship Go Down (06:03) 10 Nothing to Say (04:26) 11 Far From You (03:34) 12 Ain’t Nobody (04:20) |
| The Future and the Past : Allmusic album Review : Natalie Prass is no stranger to soul music -- at times, her eponymous 2015 debut functioned as a de facto tribute to Dusty Springfield -- but The Future and the Past finds the singer/songwriter embracing a kind of soul thats not exactly embraced by the po-faced revivalists: the sleek, synthesized sound of the early 80s. Call this Prass looking into the future as much as the past, a move she telegraphs in the very title of this exceptional second album. Prass established her troubadour bona fides on her debut, yet that fine record occasionally seemed enthralled to the hazy vistas of Laurel Canyon, a sensibility that cannot be heard on The Future and the Past. Savvy and stylish, the album updates a number of classic sounds -- songs deliberately styled in a 60s tradition are draped in 80s fashion and vice versa -- which creates an appealing bit of cognitive dissonance: certain sounds and arrangements seem naggingly familiar, but Prass and co-producer Matthew E. White piece them together in a fashion that seems simultaneously fresh and familiar. As pure sound, this is a rich, enveloping experience, but the record endures not only because the songs are so strong, but because Prass is so confident here that she seems to swagger. Her voice remains light and airy, but theres a gritty, soulful bent to her phrasing, and she takes chances with her songwriting. Sometimes, her lyrics may be a little too on the nose -- a fault that plagues the otherwise appealing "Sisters" -- but her musical skills are so fluid and sharp, she makes heavy-handed moments seem light. The result is an impressive step forward, an album that finds Natalie Prass straddling the border between the future and the past, just as she promised. | ||