Princess Chelsea
Album: Lil' Golden Book
Label: Lil' Chief
Tracks: 11
Website: http://princesschelsea.lilchiefrecords.com/

This album is a refreshingly new taste of modern music and is the debut album of New Zealand based composer Chelsea Nikkel, who had her first bite of fame through the breakthrough Youtube hit 'The Cigarette Duet'.

A quick glance at the track names on the reverse gives you an intriguing insight into what sound the album actually has. The first track, 'Machines of Loving Grace', has a wonderfully enchanting introduction and sounds like it truly belongs to a Disney film soundtrack, with Nikkel's softly-sung lyrics adding an extra dimension to the song, making it a fantastic introduction to the album.

The second track 'Yulia' is one of my personal favourites. The catchy lyrics are easily understood and are sung with a conviction some modern vocalists lack. 'Ice Reign' and its reprise challenge the youth of today's obsession with technology and the internet, as do 'Goodnight Little Robot Child' (which is a lullaby sung to a laptop) and 'Caution Repetitive'.

Nikkel studied classical piano throughout her childhood and also tried her hand at the drums, guitar and clarinet. During high school she discovered a new found love of composition, writing and recording her first song 'Monkey Eats Bananas', which is perhaps the wackiest song of the lot on this album. The song is mainly an instrumental, with a rolling drum beat and a relatively energetic piano composition as opposed to the lazy, relaxed theme of the rest of the album.

After spending most of her twenties developing her production and engineering skills, the result is this album; a home experiment that has been dubbed ' a triumph of high concept production', and a triumph it is- this debut is a success all-round and I'm sure I'll be singing along to it for weeks to come!

Sophie Babur-Puplett