Ella... of Thee I Swing

Album Review

In a post-millennium music market, most teen pop personalities are compared to Miley Cyrus before they are compared to Celine Dion. However, Montreal's Nikki Yanofsky's mastered range and voice certainly liken her more to the latter: not to say that she is classic or irrelevant, simply that she has a wicked talent with a mature charisma well beyond her years. This is proven triumphantly on Ella...Of Thee I Swing, a debut that doesn't try to dominate pop radio waves with bubblegum mush, rather one that pays tribute to the classic jazz numbers which have ultimately inspired the cultured teen. Ella is more than just a standard tribute album: it's an 18-track piece of musical magic. The album stands out because of Yanofsky's covers of more mainstream numbers. Few can ever cover original tracks like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "The Way You Look Tonight," or "At Last" with such awe-inspiring vocals. However, Yanofsky proves that at 15 years old, she can tackle these great numbers effortlessly. Ella...Of Thee I Swing wont have you bopping your head in your car like 95-percent of teen pop stars' music does, but it will make you feel like you are listening to a genuinely fantastic collection of brilliant pop and jazz music, sung through the body of an impressive young talent who, bar none, stands as the best pop voice under 20 in the post-millennium music scene to date.