Jola Recchioni – Shine On Me

Jola Recchioni – Shine On Me – Album Review

Reclaiming her time!  #Respect!

From what I’ve read about Jola Recchioni, she’s got a story many of you will certainly relate to.  You get busy doing one thing or the other as life continues to come at you, and before you know it, all this time has passed and you feel like you’ve barely even had a moment to catch your breath or do half the things you’re most passionate about.  Be like Jola, dear readers, dear friends…she finally got to the point where she was able to prioritize her own interests, and proceeded to rock!  Now she’s on her fourth album!

I love all that information.  Jola’s clearly a badass, and I’m here for it.  The Blues and I might be forever at odds with each other, but I sure as hell respect passion and artists in any genre that are giving it everything they’ve got, and Recchioni certainly qualifies in that regard.  Listening to her light up the mic on “Come Come Clouds” as her new album started up was special y’all – she’s INTO it, you know what I mean?  She’s not shying away from the big notes or the spotlight, she sings with bold, confident tones and vibrant personality…she’s putting her proverbial best foot forward and making the most of her moment…that’s what her performance on “Come Come Clouds” sounds like to me.  Kickin’ things off with a Zeppelin-esque riff at the start, who had their own share of things in common with the Blues as well, Jola and her band slide into a sleeker spin on the sound in “Come Come Clouds.”  Stylistic and well-played on all fronts, you can certainly hear that Jola’s got the bold personality you want to find in a lead singer…she’s already got me paying full attention and genuinely interested right at the start of Shine On Me.

I’ll put it to you this way…Jola’s still got plenty of time to evolve in her craft as an artist, but whether she’s been singing around the house for years before going pro, or at concerts watching her heroes, she clearly has experience she’s now able to channel into her own art.  Like, many people out there know they can sing as they’re singing along with their favorite music and such, but they tend not to test the waters all that much, or dare to break the routine of their 9-5.  Jola sounds like she’s been waiting for this moment her whole life, and absolutely attacks the mic on songs like “If Only You Loved Me.”  Could she put in a more polished performance?  Maybe…I’m not necessarily saying this is a case of perfection – in fact, I might tell you this is more of a case of someone being perfectly imperfect.  What Jola brings to the microphone and to her performance on a song like “If Only You Loved Me” is CONNECTION.  She sings in a very present way that FEELS the music & the atmosphere of the moment around her, and she consistently rises to the challenge of getting the best out of her voice as a result.  A track like this drifts closer to something you’d expect to hear from The Animals with its haunting guitar melody and the heavy weight of the atmosphere surrounding it.  After spinning this record over the past several days, I can tell you that Jola’s music is tremendously consistent straight across the board throughout Shine On Me…but I can also tell you that no matter how many times I listened, “If Only You Loved Me” was always right up there with my favorite tracks on the album.  Everything is in its right place here…I really dig this.

C’MON y’all…Jola’s wild…you’d listen to this, and you’d want to be front & center if she was playing live!  Wouldn’t you?  If you would, we can definitely be friends.  I listen to “The Best Of Our Lives” and she simply sounds like the kind of artist you hope finds the success she’s looking for, however she would define it.  I have the feeling just being able to make music is already good enough for Jola, and there’s something really beautiful about that.  “I don’t really care what anybody says,” as she’ll tell you in “The Best Of Our Lives” – she’s here to do what she wants to do, and she’s no longer required to hold the artistic side of herself back from the world.  Maybe that’s what we’re hearing more than anything else in her music…like the sound itself is symbolic for her newfound personal freedom.  A song like this is treble-up Rock with about as much Blues to it as you’d find in something like Steppenwolf, but that’s very much intentional as well – Jola goes where the music takes her, and she understands the right gear to be in & the energy to bring for what the moment calls for.  As a result of artistic choices like that, her music becomes more of a hybrid and possesses a lot of crossover sound that shares qualities with many genres.  When she gets into rock mode, she ends up with stellar results.  I think she’s still got room to make the sound of the songs bigger than it currently is in the production/mix, but we’ll get into that a bit later on down the road in this review.  “The Best Of Our Lives” is a quality Rock song all said & done.

For myself personally, the closer we drift to the Blues standards, the more I find myself resisting.  That’s not really on Jola, who puts in another solid performance on “No Commitment No Show,” but largely this is a perfect example of a song we’ve already heard before in a variety of ways.  It’s not a cover, but at the same time, it leans on just about everything you’ve ever heard from the Blues a million times over – so if you’re a true fan of the genre, this is definitely something you’ll wanna tune in for.  From my own perspective, I’ve always had a tougher time looking backward than looking forward…I’m the kind of guy that would much prefer hearing something I’ve never heard before than something I already have.   So hence, like I said at the start, the Blues and I have always been at odds with each other, because it’s just not a forward-thinking style of music.  You’re not looking to break new ground if you go into rocking the Blues – you’re going into it because you love the sound as it already is, and you feel it.  I respect that.  So do I need more songs like “No Commitment No Show” in my life personally?  No, but I still respect Jola’s desire to rock how she wants to rock, and I love that you can always hear her bringing her A-game to every song she sings.  “No Commitment No Show” ain’t a bad tune so much as it’s just a lil’ predictable or typical of what you’d expect to find on a Blues record…the band is still locked in at a very high level.

Love the way “If I’m Your Fool” starts out!  Excellent guitar line, great melody & tone in the music, and once again, Jola brings a larger-than-life personality to the microphone.  Seriously y’all…she’s got that GIANT presence up front, and she’s got the confidence of bellowing icons like Jim Morrison and freakin’ Danzig.  Raw like Janis Joplin too…I love it when you can hear Jola get that extra bit of rasp in her voice when she sings at points along the way.  I’m genuinely impressed with what she does.  I mean, you’ve gotta consider the fact that, while she might have arrived to the music scene later than she’d have liked, she’s still relatively early on in her professional career when it comes right down to it.  To me, it already sounds like she approaches the microphone like a veteran would, and she clearly knows how to handle her business when she gets in front of one.  That opening guitar line is so remarkably vivid and smooth to listen to, that every single time “If I’m Your Fool” came along again in rotation as I listened, I just wanted to eat bowlfuls of that sound.  I also think that lyrically, this is some of Jola’s strongest work as well.  Even the title itself reveals a depth to its thought-provoking vibe, and the theme is a solid pairing for music like this.  Complete with a killer solo that’s undoubtedly one of the best on the record, I felt like “If I’m Your Fool” was constantly at the top of my list of most impressive songs from Shine On Me.

If anything, I suppose there would be two pieces of advice that I’d share with Jola.  The first would be that she’s got such a MASSIVE voice, that she could easily bring it down in the mix, which would make her music sound much BIGGER overall.  Trust me when I tell ya, she’d still be the dominant sound that anyone would hear first, but yeah…doing that would make the songs themselves sound as big as they’re intended to be.  The second thing I’d tell her is that the further she’s strayed from the roots of the Blues and shown us the more innovative side of her take on the genre, the more impact I feel like she’s made.  As in, I don’t really think she needs too many tunes like “No Commitment No Show” or “My Heart Is Mellow” that lean on the old Blues standards as much in her catalog when she’s capable of doing so much more – but that might just be the way I hear it based on my own personal feeling about the Blues.  It’s not like she isn’t crushing it up there on “My Heart Is Mellow” – she IS – but again, it’s harder to argue that you’re hearing that you haven’t heard in some way, shape or form, long before she got here.  Think of it this way as well…if you’re continually going with a vocals-on-top-of-the-mix approach, you’re potentially missing out on a few more dynamics that shape the landscape of an album as well…so again, there’s still more space & room for Jola to evolve in what she creates as an artist as she refines her craft.

You can’t deny a quality riff when you hear one though!  “Gonna See A Gyspy” has Jola and her band sounding large and in charge as the kick out the jams here.  It’s got that “Come Together” kind of energy to it, like you were almost expecting Jola to start singing about “old flat-top” for a brief moment at the very start.  I will be forever fascinated by Recchioni’s commitment on the microphone.  Pass or fail, like it or love it, she never leaves anything on the table, you know what I mean?  Every time she steps up to a microphone, you can count on her to put everything she’s got into the material.  I ain’t lyin’ to you when I say I wish that even half the artists/bands we all listen to had that same kind of spirited approach to their craft and the personality they put into their music.  My job would be a whole lot easier if they did, trust me.  I felt like “Gonna See A Gypsy” was kind of a surprising tune in the set in a way…I ended up liking this tune more than I think I initially thought I would.  Not to harp on the point I’ve been making all along, but it’s very much thanks to Jola putting in 100% every second she’s singing that gives tracks like this the extra edge they need to convince anyone that might have been feeling on the fence.  Jola goes for some extremely big moments in the finale of this tune, proving her fearlessness once again.

While a track like “If I’m Your Fool” might be the crown jewel of this record overall and highlights Jola’s ability to thrive in a mellower setting, I think it’s also fair to say that the more Rock that has been infused into her take on the Blues, generally speaking, the better the results have been for her.  Again, at least from my perspective…if you have a different opinion, you’re always welcome to it.  I like “When The Fire Gets High” for pretty much the same reasons as why I’ve liked so much of this album – the music from her band is always reliable, and you just can’t beat having this kind of personality up front on the microphone.  Jola is COMMANDING the stage…or the studio, as it were…you get it – she spares no quarter when it comes time to sing, and that remarkable connection & confidence she brings to the music is always turned up to eleven.  She kind of reminds me of Ian Astbury from The Cult too at times, which I think is pretty rad in the grand scheme of things.  I’ve always been a big fan of confidence in a lead singer, and Jola’s always put that into every performance.  Her notes and tones are always where they should be, and it’s very rare to find many instances where she could have come out with more consistency in her voice.  She’s been ready for this chapter of her life as an artist for some time now, and you can tell by what you hear.  It’s great to hear her own her moment on “When The Fire Gets High.”

With the wild degree or personality and attitude she has as a singer, a song like “My Name Is Trouble” is pretty much the perfect kind of setting for her to thrive in once again.  Jola has a very performance-minded type of sound, you know what I mean?  Like, she knows where the big moments are needed and she’s ready to meet the demands of those spots in any song.  She’s also got this slick and stylistic way of singing that’s nearly got a theatrical/cabaret kind of vibe to it as well, which again, is all a seamless fit into a track like “My Name Is Trouble.”  All-in-all, if you were to tell me that this cut was your favorite in the whole set-list, I’d give you a high-five…and I might even be inclined to agree.  It’s tough to compete with how much I like “If I’m Your Fool,” but Recchioni might very well be at her most impressive on the longest song from Shine On Me, “My Name Is Trouble.”  I guess I just think there are like, good songs, and then there are songs that really find clever ways of emulating their concept and/or theme.  “My Name Is Trouble” is an example of the latter in action…it’s a solid tune for sure, but it’s also more than that – it’s a perfect pairing between concept and sound, which can make a massive difference in what becomes the lifecycle and longevity of a song.  I’d be hard pressed to choose between “If I’m Your Fool” and “My Name Is Trouble” for my number one in the set…they’re equally great tunes, but they also show us different sides of Jola’s sound & style as well.  On the bright side, that speaks volumes on behalf of her ability to make an impression on us in a variety of ways too, right?  “My Name Is Trouble” is definitely another easily identifiable highlight in the set-list of Shine On Me…that’s what I can tell ya.  Love the way the song spirals and descends around the 2:45 mark in the bridge…in general, I felt like Jola really used the extra length in “My Name Is Trouble” to her advantage & made every second count.

Finishing things off on “You’re A Loose Cannon,” I’m sure Jola already knows what I’m gonna say about this track that once again leans into the bedrock of all the Blues songs you know.  Generally-speaking, it’s entirely consistent…the band has never let her down and shown us plenty of flair & finesse in the way they play, even in instances like this where it’s something that sounds very familiar to us.  As I like to remind ya from time to time on these pages of ours, all you can ever do is give the moment everything you’ve got, and if you’re truly doing that, people will genuinely listen and you can win them over with any style of music you might be playing.  I’m a fan of Jola Recchioni based on everything I’ve heard and all that I’ve read about her, even if the Blues isn’t a part of my main musical diet.  Being able to HEAR passion MATTERS to me when I’m listening to any artist or band, and Jola’s got PLENTY of that.  Rockin’ with the rumble and rhythm that the entire genre has been built on foundationally, “You’re A Loose Cannon” wraps up another record to add to her catalog & credits with stylistically slick sound that Blues fans are sure to dig.  She’s definitely put in performances to be proud of, and created a record that shines a very bright light on her innate connection to music, and instincts to keep you fully entertained.

Find out more about Jola Recchioni from the official pages below!

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559408172310

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jolarecchioni

Apple Music:  https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/jola-recchioni/1701859323

Bandcamp:  https://jolarecchioni.bandcamp.com

ReverbNation:  https://www.reverbnation.com/jolarecchioni

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