Carina Round breaks out of U.K. and onto the U.S. scene

Carina Round

The Disconnection

Interscope Records

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Carina Round

The Disconnection

Interscope Records

Recommended if you like: PJ Harvey, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Carina Round has been hiding out in the United Kingdom for way too long. She has a lot of talent locked up in her for her being so young. Hailing from Wolverhampton, England, she released her first album, The First Blood Mystery, in 2001 at the age of 22. She has toured with the likes of David Gray, Coldplay and Ryan Adams.

Her second release, The Disconnection, has slow, melodic tunes with a touch of raw and edgy fury right in the places it’s needed. A little more complex than her rawer first album, she sings with the delicate fury of PJ Harvey and Patti Smith.

The Disconnection fits right in at a time when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are beginning to take over airwaves. She has a lot of the same aspects as the YYY’s Karen O has. Round’s looks and voice have strikingly similar qualities to those of Karen O, although Round’s vocals can run a lot smoother and more melodically. She doesn’t rock out as hard at times, and has more of a pop sound to differentiate the two.

Her first single, “In My Blood,” has a touch of what Karen O gives to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The soft, steady rhythm of the guitars keeps this track moving along with a simplistic smoothness.

Another standout song, “Paris,” is a love song to the spectacular Paris and all other things beautiful in the world. It’s a fun little acoustic pop song that’s soothing to the ears.

Her songwriting and the way she presents it have bluesy characteristics. For example, in “Motel 74,” she skillfully uses her voice to convey the emotion of the words, “I could open my hands and let the rain come down/But you’re just too close to dream I have/I’m scared and I don’t know why/I couldn’t watch you go/I can’t watch you go/You know it sounds strange and untrue/But I miss you.”

She has a great, unique sound that leads one to wonder how we overlooked it. She combines an array of beats and rhythms to create her own sound. The only fault the album has is it can run together at certain points. Adding more heavy songs onto this album to mix it up a little bit would benefit it a lot. The album can drag on with its slow beats sometimes, making the songs seem longer then they actually are.

Carina Round strives to dodge the pop-culture fad of selling herself. She wants to just sell the emotions and quality of her music. If only that sold record, she would have sold a million records by now.