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Beyond its brevity, there is a lot to like about Easy to Love. As a vocalist, Henley is the real thing. Listeners will note that Henley is a vocalist who also plays the piano, which will bring the inevitable comparisons to Alicia Keys. That's fine. Henley as a vocalist doesn't suffer from being compared to Keys.
Beyond its brevity, there is a lot to like about Easy to Love. As a vocalist, Henley is the real thing. Listeners will note that Henley is a vocalist who also plays the piano, which will bring the inevitable comparisons to Alicia Keys. That's fine. Henley as a vocalist doesn't suffer from being compared to Keys. Both women eschew the breathy little girl sound that is the rage these days. Henley, like Keys, opens her mouth and gives a full-throated vocal that sounds mature, passionate and believable.
Henley's music deals with matters of the heart: relationships. However, as the song "Pompi's Song" shows, the relationship doesn't have to be romantic. "Pompi's Song," is a ballad that expresses the sorrow that Henley feels about the loss of a person who served as a mentor and inspiration.
When Henley does sing about relationships, the topic that she deals with goes far beyond the bedroom. The mid-tempo "Complicated" deals with the conflicting feelings the singer experiences as the lines between being friends and more than friends begin to blur. "Disguise" tells the story of an indifferent lover who strings the singer along by pretending that he's really into her when he is not. "Fool With You" is a song that shows how love sometimes makes people act a little crazy.
Henley covers a lot of ground on Easy to Love's eight tracks. She manages to explore relationships in all of their joy, pain and complexity. Topically, Henley goes where her heart leads her, and her vocals and her lyrics will have a lot of listeners wanting to follow. Recommended.
By Howard Dukes