Kiesza – Sound Of A Woman Review

May 10th, 2015

I was never an active participant in the whole 90’s dance thing as a kid. Sure, I owned the odd Aqua, Ace of Base, or Will Smith album, but Kiesza draws inspiration more from the early 90’s house side of dance, which I almost had no exposure to besides knowing tracks from the breakout artists in the genre. Songs like “Pump of the Jam” by Technotronic, “The Music’s Got Me” by Bass Bumpers and Haddaway’s “What Is Love” is the kind of 90’s “trash” you can expect Kiesza’s throwback sound to pay homage to. Of course, there’s a bit of modern tooling and genre blending thrown in for good measure. The lineage is cemented when we hear her slow cover of “What Is Love” half way through the album.

I’m always a bit weary when the the single and arguably the best song is the first track. Sadly, my dread was realized after a couple playthroughs. Hideaway is definitely the strongest track here. It’s also a good example of how a clash of modern-ish EDM and 90’s dance can work together, although “work together” is probably a bit too strong. Other stand-out tracks include the click-beaty “Vietnam” and less-derivative, modern sounding “Sound Of A Woman”.

And while I referred to the music as “90’s trash”, Sound Of A Woman has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure. It’s cheesy, overbearing, but still nostalgic and unique. Just interesting enough to get me in a dancey mood on a rare occasion, but more often than not I just forget this album exists.