Reviews
Selected Music Reviews
"Every song is a journey to a land strange and wonderful."
GRAHAM PEAVEY, MUSIC CRITIC
"She plays like a piano prodigy, finesses a Classic guitar, and sings like the angel of the morning. Her talent in a word: incredible!"
RICH GARCIA, PRODUCER
With the voice of an angel, Queenie offers soft sounds with an edge on her CD, "Queenie". This music will draw a definite comparison to Enya, but there is also a refined Brahmsian sound to some of the piano tracks, as well as a 60's era songwriter element. The album opens with one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, called "Lost", with a refreshingly simple piano and voice arrangement. Other highlights of the album are the soulful and weepy Asian- sounding "Hey Soldier" and the bizarre, Celtic-Rock, slightly preachy "Turn Up the Radio". Queenie is a newcomer you shouldn't miss.
WALTER BORGOSA, NAPERVILLE MUSIC TRIBUNE
"Perhaps Queenie is where Classical music ends and popular music begins--or maybe it's the other way around. No other Asian composer has dared to do what Queenie does so effortlessly, and very few pop singers outside of Sarah Brightman have hybridized the Classic style that Queenie seems to have flowing from her heart."
SHARON COPLAND, REVIEWER
"Queenie’s debut album is a fantastic recording full of passionate, ethereal songs sure to transport any listener. They certainly transported me… back to teenaged days when I longed for isolation while struggling with the cruelty and methodicism of the outside world. Queenie’s songs are about real life… loss, terror, living in a fantasy world, heartache, bitterness and ultimately, survival.
Queenie has a startlingly beautiful voice, which adds an ironic angelic quality to these songs whose subject matter is not so beautiful. She uses lovely instrumentation, subtle sound effects, and angelic harmonies to further shape her material. Each song has it’s own personality, and sparkles with Queenie’s passionate lyrics, delivery and her glistening piano. The orchestration is tasteful and understated, leaving her voice and lyrics front and center. It is obvious through her delivery that Queenie sings what she knows and has lived. Her songs should serve as highly welcome to those of us who have ever felt isolated, lost, ashamed, or just uncool. Queenie has the heart of a poet, tremendous musical sensibility, and a fine talent for drawing in her listeners. This is an astonishingly good debut, and I for one tremendously look forward to the next album later in 2005! Definitely grab this CD… this is a truly wonderful recording! Highly recommended!"
KIM, WRITER
"Fans of Kate Bush don't find anything missing with Queenie. She's got a spectacular voice that you can never get enough of, so it is sad that she's only got one album. Lost is a song that stays with you, but not in a bad way. I don't know how she does it, but her songs reminded me of stuff I had personally experienced so much it was freaky and I thought she was talking to me. The "preview" songs from her Dream of Flight are incredibly promising and seem to evoke the weird quasi-medieval atmosphere that certain movies and role playing games constantly strive to capture, a perfect world within her bubble."
SHARON RANDALL, CRITIC
"Hi Queenie! The CD came today from CD Baby. Its a pretty CD. I really like the song Jonathan."
KAITLIN BANZAS
"Queenie, who on an apparent shoestring budget and a staff of one manages to combine the basics of Enya's lush harmonic sweep with the modern pop songcraft sensibility of a Sarah McLachlan."
DARRYL CATER, CHICAGOGIGS.COM
"Saying more than you've written is what makes the artist. One seems to have to glean through a myriad of entities screaming 'Listen to me!', 'Hear what I have to say!' until one comes across a still small voice whispering: 'This is how I hear it...' and then you know you are in the presence of a gifted heart. Queenie must have grown through the same situational chaos as Janis Ian, Judy Collins, and even a young Joni Mitchell to be able to say so much more than she has written. Her wonderfully fresh rendition of 'Lost' is as explicit as Judy's 'Since You've Asked' and every bit as harmonic and layered. I was truly impressed. This is the kind of artist we writers dream of writing for but alas, she writes so well for herself.... Adding definition beyond linguistic reference to the titles she pens are rare strengths and appear to be her greatest talent . . . . "
CHAPMAN JAMES, FOLK CRITIC
"This song just touched me deeply. Never did I hear the pain of a hurt womans' heart more clearly and dense. It's a simple song, but, oh, so true. For the weary."
SEBASTIAN MATTHIAS, REVIEWER
"I'll talk about one of the songs I listened to, Turn Up the Radio. What to say?
The lyrics: really very intelligent and a lot more verbose than the classification "easy listening" does justice to in my book. I am reminded of Jennifer Kimball and Jonatha Brooke, but also of the introspective searching in the modern age that someone like Thom Yorke of Radiohead is doing in his work."
CASEY HOLFORD, INDIE ARTIST, QEQ PRODUCTIONS
"I may seem a little naive here because I don't actually know what the term new age encompasses! If this is new age then I like it. K.M.P consists of Harout Kalandjian based in LA, who is the guru behind all of the music on this track, played on synthesisers. A woman called Queenie is the guest vocalist and what a beautiful voice she has too. The song briefly starts with a haunting melody followed by the drums and a keyboard/guitar effect sound which is excellent. Queenie's vocals in some places seem like she is in a chapel singing a kind of Gregorian chant as the song becomes subdued in the verses. In other parts of the song Queenie's vocals are more direct and appear to be double tracked. This does actually benefit the song, giving a more professional sound. The song is at its best when Queenie is singing at the forefront and the music is at the highest point, which is the chorus."
BE WHO YOU ARE SONG REVIEW AT GODS OF MUSIC
"Enya is to Queenie what a tract-home builder is to Frank Lloyd Wright."
LYNNE BLOOD, GRAMMY NOMINATED MUSICIAN
"Unparalleled songwriting and a voice that is melancholic, yet majestic."
CARL FLAUGHER, CRITIC
"Perfect vocal delivery, even when it's raw and live!"
BRIAN YEE, LISTENER