Shayna King is a Christchurch based singer/song writer though perhaps not in the most traditional sense, I was refreshed to find that she has a full backing band that helps add a little grit to the performances on the album.
The opening tracks on her debut album, The Day Is Young, are your typical acoustic, melodic, pop songs, they are well written but didnt jump out at me, that being said the production is clear and well balanced, well achieved for a self funded album.
I was how ever getting into the "seen it/heard it" mind frame so when Swept Away came into my head phones I was pleased that she and her band had stepped it up a little into perhaps a similar vein as fellow Christchurch musicians, Stellar. Swept Away is where I personally would have been eager to see the rest of the album go but thats not to say there are not more great moments in there.
Shayna has a strong voice, a good ear for melody and a solid band behind her with the male backing vocals adding a nice contrast between tracks.
The next song that stood out a little more was Heart Of Blues, again this track had a little more grit than the album openers dealing with what the blues deals so well with, relationships, heartache and ......well..... the blues really!
I felt the end section of the album is stronger than the opening, the songs had better topic choice and more ideas being thrown around, but thats just me, I encourage everyone to make up their own minds on these things and give all different types of music a chance.
So to sum it up, this is a poppy, acoustic based, strong first effort and I would be interested to see where her next release takes her as a song writer,as writing is a forever evolving process and can take many directions. Shayna and her band have done well with her first release, kudos :)
“She already projects the image of a star at the top of the game – if she continues as is, that’s exactly where she’ll end up.” - Happy Mag (AU)
“The next best pop party to come out of New Zealand” – Music Nation (NZ)
A “melancholic view of an OE” has inspired New Zealand singer-songwriter SHAYNA’s new single Miles Away. “Travelling the globe with a sole companion and seeing the best and worst in each others characters as you are both exhausted, low on money and feeling like outsiders who don’t fit into the fast-paced rhythm of a foreign city.”