Search - Victoria Vox :: Chameleon

Fun songs and great voice - with only a few missteps

Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 07/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I need to admit up front that I'm a huge fan of the ukulele, that under appreciated "baby guitar" that allows you to actually hear the lyrics to a song.



Vox plays the uke on more than half the tracks on this album - the guitar is her prime instrument on the remaining cuts - along with toy piano, trumpet and even mouth trumpet on a few songs. She's accompanied on electric guitar, percussion and bass by Mike Tarantino, who also produced this highly entertaining album.



While I'm partial to the uke-centric numbers like "Buttercup", which could have been a hit in the 1930s, the lead track "Peeping Tomette" and "What's Wrong?", a delightful song where they are joined by some friends on backing vocals in a simple arrangement, a few seem to be trying a bit too hard for commercial airplay. The problem with this is that songs like "From The Outside" sound like nearly every female singer-songwriter out there and the final track "Falling Star" seems to be shooting for Country Radio.



Still, there's a lot to recommend. The one number in French, "C'est Noye", has the uke out front and Vox inserts a real nice trumpet solo in the middle. "What's Wrong?" will stick in your head for hours after hearing it. Her voice is sweet and the production quality high. I certainly will look for more of her work and many of the tracks on this album will find a home on my MP3 player.



Steve Ramm

"Anything Phonographic"

"