EP Review: Reigan – All Of The Pieces
2 min read
“It’s destroying the next generation of musicians! Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy and old fucking drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they’ll suck, too. And then they’ll fucking start playing and they’ll have the best time they’ve ever had in their lives and then all of a sudden they’ll become Nirvana. Because that’s exactly what happened with Nirvana.” That is the opinion of the great Dave Grohl on why televised singing competitions are destroying musicians. And I couldn’t agree more. I don’t understand the idea of downloading a song on iTunes that barely differs from the original, just because the latest face on your TV screen is singing it. No matter how great that singer may be. It’s the Glee effect, and it sure must be profitable.
Reigan Derry has graced our screens on not one, but two such shows, Australian Idol and The X Factor Australia. In the latter, a foo of a different variety, Red, saw the essential star quality needed to launch the latest Aussie pop star and even though she placed fourth overall, Sony jumped on the band wagon and have delivered her first EP, All Of The Pieces. On the record Reigan brings us a select choice of tracks she performed on the show, as well as an original in the title track. And it’s cool. The dark, edgy single lands somewhere between a MSMR and Emeli Sande track, and until the final chorus Reigan resists the urge to go full blown talent show on us and stays subtle with the vocal. I like it.
The rest? Meh. Reigan has a fantastic voice but I am always going to prefer the Florence and The Machine version of Dawg Days and Sam Smith’s Stay With Me. Rihanna’s Only Girl (In The World) is given a cool little make over, but it still doesn’t touch the original and don’t even get me started on the crime that is pop-ifying Hallelujah. So all in all I’m siding with the superior Foo on this one, as always.
