The Universe can be a very odd Mistress. Take Harriet as an example.
The Universe blessed her with Beauty, It blessed her with a voice to die for. It blessed her with a songwriters ear for a melody. But in a quirk of mischief that only the Universe can conjure, it put her musical sensibility a few decades out of time.
She would have fit in perfectly in the early 70s songwriting fraternity on the West Coast of the USA.
In a bid to make her sound and approach more contemporary she decided to write and record her second proper album in the current hotbed of European songwriting and recording - Stockholm.
The result is the enjoyably upbeat new album The Outcome and here is the tour to promote said album.
A regular at Acapela Studios this is the first time Harriet has brought a full band with her to Wales.
This certainly helped the show tonight as the sound was very much the sound of the album.
Harriet concentrated the evening's performance on her two proper albums and opened the show with the upbeat Heartbreak Holiday from The Outcome and this pretty much set the tone for the performance tonight as we got a chance to see another side of Harriet, the uptempo, almost danceable side and what a joy it was. I've seen her live in support of her ballad heavy first album and the piano session album but this is the most comfortable and relaxed I've seen her perform.
Whoever You Are from 1st album comes next and then it's time for the first single from Outcome,
Nothing Hurts Like You.
Nothing Hurts Like You
Harriet mixed up the ballads well with the more uptempo numbers tonight as new song, Not In Love is followed by What's Mine Is Yours.
What's Mine Is Yours
Towards the release of her first album, Harriet released several eps culminating into an album of covers. She's always had a great ear for a cover and tonight she gave us her interpretation of the Backstreet Boys classic, As Long As You Love Me.
As Long As You Love Me
One of the highlights of The Outcome comes next. On the album it's a lovely duet with Nikhil D'Sousa,
tonight it's a solo performance but loses none of it's beauty.
One of the best performances of the first album, the beautiful Empty Shoes comes next
A special mention for the band here, who were excellent throughout, just letting the music speak for itself and the spotlight to shine on Harriet.
On Drums - Lewis Searle, Bass - Nathan Garrety, Connor McDonalds - Guitars and Scott Hayes on Keys
Next up again, another beauty from album one, the gorgeous The First & Last which shows Harriet's beautiful vocals a chance to soar. She really is in fine voice on this tour, the best I've heard her singing.
First & Last
Laleh - Some Die Young
Now in traditional Acapela fashion, the show is in two parts and the final song in the first set is a cover by the Swedish singer Laleh - Some Die Young which Harriet covers on The Outcome.
After a short break the band come back with the intro to the uptempo track Fly from album one, before they are joined by Harriet and intent on keeping the mood up and joyous,
Fly
Harriet declared her next song to be her favourite of the moment - the country tinged and Fleetwood Mac sounding I Think Of You. This was followed by another new track and possibly the next single, Something Simple.
It was now time for another Swedish cover , this time by Zara Larsson with her track Symphony which was a triumph and fit in so well with the rest of the show. Harriet said she had been teaching her Swedish producer about the joys of Christopher Cross and the Doobie Brothers and made the track with a suitable Yacht Rock vibe, Right up my Boulevard I may add.
Symphony
Another killer ballad from album one comes up next with the delicious Afterglow, which could have been a long lost 70s classic ballad.
Afterglow
Now comes the song I've been waiting for Harriet to perform from the new album, the title track, The Outcome. It is a very atmospheric track on the album, which even includes the F word, which Harriet sensibly censored tonight, probably for the young girl of about 8 sat right in front of her for the whole performance. And I admired her for that decision. Now this track reminds me of the left turn that Taylor Swift made with her Folklore album and I told Harriet afterward that if I was her manager I would get her on the next plane to Nashville to work with some of their left field writers like Trent Dabbs or Blake Mills. I think the Americans would love her and I'd love to see what they could do with her fabulous english voice,
The almost disco new song Drop In The Ocean then leads us into the final track of the set, which reminded me of another lady with a gorgeous voice, Rumer, with her track Dangerous. Broken For You from album one.
Broken For You
After some rapturous applause Harriet came to the stage for the encore. Now, if it was me picking the setlist I would have chosen the uplifting song Permission To Kiss from the first album next but I didn't so we had the other gorgeous uptempo beauty from The Outcome, the audience friendly, Story Of Your Life.
Story Of Your Life
And there endeth another fabulous Acapela performance by Harriet. The crowd loved her, I loved her and I'm curious as where she goes next. I hope she takes my advice and heads west for the next album. But whatever she produces will be classy and melodic and well, that voice........
TWITTER - @HarrietsMusic
