Album Review: Gretchen Peters – Hello Cruel World
3 min read
Perhaps an unfamiliar name to most over here in the UK, New York born/Colorado raised country singer Gretchen Peters is about to make big waves on British shores in an attempt to gain a wider fanbase. With the likes of Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift helping make country music more ‘cool’ to listen to the time can only be right for Peters to make her own mark on the impressionable and accepting British public.
Hello Cruel World is the songstresses brand new record and after just a couple of listens the album, which boasts 11 meaty tracks, is a fantastic introduction to a musician well deserving of international super-stardom.
With vocals that make you melt instantly, Peters has become a renowned musician in her homeland and has penned tracks over the past 15 years for country and rock’s A-list including Neil Diamond, Bryan Adams, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood and the late Etta James while building a name for herself as one of the industry’s hardest working songwriters and entertainers.
With the UK market in her sights Gretchen Peters releases Hello Cruel World this week and what a record it is.
The opening title track has a melody that engrains itself within you with its catchy, hook heavy chorus’ which are cast beautifully over a melancholic string section. As the track gently warms us into the record with its confident declaration of “I’m a very lucky girl” the haunting tones in Peter’s vocals perch themselves over a cool double bass before the closing piano tinkering tie the track up into a beautifully composed musical package.
The following number takes us into more acoustic territory as Saint Francis sits casually in the opening half of the record as melodically entrancing as it is lyrically vulnerable while it shows off Peter’s soft yet exquisite vocals that sound right at home with the songs laid back rhythm and complimenting harmonies found mid song that ring out gorgeously through to the end of the track.
Peter’s applies a different approach to The Matador and allows the lyrics do the work as the instrumentation takes a back row seat and sits like an onlooker to the musicians masterful songwriting abilities which showcase why Peter’s has become such a sought after songwriter.
Further down the track-listing Paradise Found is a rickety addition to Hello Cruel World. Its wailing strings that open the track guide us into a number full of rustic sounding instrumentation and a stunning pop tinged chorus that keeps you tapping your feet long after the song is over.
Another notable on Hello Cruel World has to be Five Minutes. Why Gretchen hasn’t made the transition into the UK market until now is beyond us as tracks like these are why country music is such a loved genre. Softly sung and instrumentally gentle the late addition to Hello Cruel World is one of the most beautiful lyrical additions to the track-listing with its effective storytelling taking centre stage.
Hello Cruel World is a wonderful introduction for Peter’s into the UK market. Being her ninth studio album it’s a real shame the singer/songwriter hasn’t had the same affect as a solo artist on the international stage as her songs, which she has generously passed on to other artists to sing, have had. Hopefully that is all about to change with the release of Hello Cruel World.
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::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
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