Rachel Furner - Follow Me

This young lady seems like another singer songwriter who deserves success, although there are a lot of them around at the minute which could mean the public have had enough... or can't get enough... From December 2009:

Latest teen Brit singer songwriter sensation Rachel Furner has been ‘singing since she could talk’ and has had her music glorified on fellow pop star Pixie Lott’s show. Playing the piano herself as well as writing her own lyrics, her sound is reminiscent of American stars Nerina Pallot and such like, with vocals slightly colloquial similar to Kate Nash – minus the mockney.

Rachel has been writing her own songs since she was eleven years old, and playing the piano from the age of six, a talent perhaps realised from the encouragement of music in her household. She grew up living next door to a room which was used as a recording studio by her father, who would record and play music at all hours. Rachel often fell asleep to his favourite records such as Kate Bush or Stevie Wonder. This diversity of music being drummed into her young mind every night did not help inspire her in any direction, as she says on her MySpace her inspirations are “everything :)”.

Being signed to major label Mercury/Universal doesn’t seemed to have affected her music in a negative way, Follow Me is traditional to singer songwriter form with thankfully little production – just the piano and percussion. This makes for a refreshing listen, especially when comparing to other pop music currently in the charts, i.e. the transfusion of electro/dance/pop or rapping reusing segments of old songs. Rachel’s music shows that there is nothing wrong with a voice and an instrument instead of all the industry fuss placed on top with fancy synths and dance moves.

Follow Me starts slow, introducing the piano which at points even threatens to overtake the vocals, then starts to speed up midway through the chorus with catchy “do do do’s” which capture the listeners attention for sure even if they weren’t glued to the lyrics before. Rachel cleverly and interestingly writes with reference to aspects tinted with magic, “secrets”, but put in a teenage social context, “judging”: “In this secret place no more eyes watching how we behave/no more judging or running, turning to hide”. There are remnants of the girly voice wobbles where you can really hear Rachel’s vocal range, which is impressive. As sugary and heartwarming as Follow Me is, it manages to get away with slightly sinister lyrics: “follow me to the railway line” - which could be considered worryingly menacing, except that it was followed with singalong “do do do’s”, therefore making it ok.

Rachel Furner seems to have a bright future ahead of her, signed to a major label, a celebrity fan in Pixie Lott, and already having played to a sold out venue ‘YoYo’. Her new year looks likely to be a successful one.