Shona's first album

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 4

Shona's first album

New Zealand artists do not usually fare well at the hands (or wallets) of their

countrymen. Lindsay Marks, for example, produced an album which was

not without merit, but which nevertheless sold so poorly that the lad hung up* his guitar and rode off into the sunset. But Shona Laing's album, j “Whispering Afraid”. (Vertigo 6360 901) sold 1300 copies the first week it was released and that, for a New Zealand record, means success, at least commercially. I have always liked Shona Laing. I like her innocence and the passion of her concern. Things which are all too easy to label as corny or naive; things which can easily be dismissed as weaknesses, but which are in fact strengths. Whether or not she can effectively manage the transition from songs of innocence to songs of experience is something only time will tell. But for the moment she continues to express, honestly and directly, lyrically and tunefully, the hopes, fears, aspirations, desires and dreams of youth which, if we are honest, none of us have forgotten completely. There are 10 songs on the album, her hits. “1905”. “Show Your Love”, and "Masquerade”, and seven others, the best of which are the title track. “Whisp e r i n g Afraid”; its "answer”, “Like Days Gone Before”; the love song “If Only” and a thoughtful song which wrestles with one of Shona Laing’s chief preoccupations, time — “Is Anything Ever Everlasting". There is still a clumsiness in some of the songs, especially in expressing personal feelings and a desire for privacy which inhibits personal disclosure and tends to weaken some of her songs; but these are not major criticisms of a good first album. However, the arrangements of the songs do warrant a major criticism. Virtually all the tracks are hopelessly over-garnished with soggy, sentimental, Mantovani-rides-again type string arrangements which

are unimaginative and unhelpful. This was the obvious way to handle the material, which is as good a reason

; as any for not doing so. | Clean, elegant, spare ac- ’ companiments would, in my opinion, have offset i Shona Laings rich deep voice much better. ! Still, it’s no use crying ’ over spilt flutes. The ; strings are there now, and ■ that’s that. They do mar this record but not too drastically, and what Shona Laing sings and how she sings it is a more than sufficient counter. —Mike Lombard