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The Twilight Saga: New Moon
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A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
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Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
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Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
John Aizlewood's rating
Reader rating
A fresh-faced 25-year-old Californian and so well adjusted (or so sheltered) that her father and her father’s defiantly Sixties coiffure are an integral part of her band, Alela Diane Menig operates in the new-folk female singer-songwriter hinterland, where voices are strong, songs slightly quirky and Joni Mitchell remains revered.
Last night’s covers, Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman and the hardy folk perennial Matty Groves, just about bookended her territory, although she’s also a less maverick Dido with the vocal clarity of Joan Baez, herself no stranger to Matty Groves.
Even so, Alela Diane is her own woman and sufficiently knowing to colour what might have been a monochrome palette by performing solo and with any or all of her worryingly hirsute four-piece band.
She announced that this is the last concert to be held at St Giles-in-the-Fields before rhapsodising about the church’s beauty. It was beautiful, but, unlike much of her audience, Alela did not spend her evening in God’s house shuffling uncomfortably on the devil’s own buttock-bruising pews.
But her own songs were mostly balm and Oh! My Mama was a beautiful evocation of three generations of maternal love. Yet the percussive The Ocean bubbled with undercurrents of malevolence, the country-flecked To Be Still was all lost love entwined with war metaphors but what darkness she aspired to was trampled underfoot by her natural sweetness.
And her patently proud father? “Well,” she chuckled, “he’s really cool as it turns out.” So is his daughter. As it turned out.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
While there's no doubting the quality of Alela's songwriting, a number of last evening's performances were spoiled by the addition of the bassist and drummer, whose plodding backbeat swamped some delicate songs. The highlights of the evening were, for me, those tunes performed with the accompaniment of her father and gorgeous backing singer, Alina Hardin, who also writes her own material by the way.
- David, London, UK
