The Musician Spring Review, 2010
by
Annakinskydancer
Anna enjoys a deservedly high reputation for her strong vocals and vibrant material. Her latest release 'Touch' features 12 tracks of moving folk/pop that builds upon this standing by featuring her best recordings to date. The stand out track, 'Emotional Baggage' shows why it won't be long before she steps into the mainstream.
Keith Aimes
The Musician Magazine
Touch" the triumphant new album from captivating singer/songwriter Anna Neale.
by
Ian Sadler
Often when an artist revisits material that's been gathering dust for many a long year it's a futile attempt to bottle the lightening of past successes once more. Many a burning of the reputation and ego has resulted. Fortunately for Anna Neale and the music-appreciating public the revisitation of unfinished home-recorded material from the last 6 years has proved to be the genesis for her triumphant new album "Touch". Each of the twelve tracks is a highly-polished production resplendently layered at various points with multiple and varied backing instrumentation, including cajón, guitar, violin and double bass.
Anna's strong and captivating voice entrances you with the more ballad-like tales of St Peter's tomb in Rome in "St Peter", strolling along London's South Bank near "Waterloo Bridge", and the dawning of a new year of promise with "January". Faster tunes to get the blood, feet and fingers moving aren't neglected, with "Control" (the first single from the album) and the title track "Touch" leading the way in this respect. Granted not all the tracks are up to the grade of their fellows on the album with "Keep Coming Again" and "Emotional Baggage" failing to entice me into their aural realm in the same manner as the rest of the album. But what I perceive as misses are likely to be classed as the opposite by other reviewers and the buying public. It's all about perception and the best way to decide is to check out the album yourself. Overall we should be extremely grateful that Anna Neale decided to review what being an artist in this day and age means and went into the past to extract the 12 songs that now comprise "Touch". If you enjoy material of varying paces with quality production values and performances to match investing in this album will not be a disappointment. 8/10
