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Kaylee Bell - Single Review: Keith

20 Feb 2019 // A review by florencecohen

It’s your classic Sunday ‘treat yourself’ evening – pizza, sweatpants, and a Netflix rom-com. By the time the camera finally pans away from the glossy couple with the perfect teeth, holding hands, walking away, you get this overwhelming big-heart-in-the-throat feeling. It’s awful. A two-hour love story you’re not a part of dredges up all kinds of feelings – a mix of terror and dread, sadness and guilt over lost relationships, and always that inevitable yearning for ‘the one’.

Listening to Kaylee Bell’s Keith for the first time was like having had a sly cry at the Netflix rom-com and hearing the uplifting anthem during the credits. It’s a wonderful time. It’s like being told you’re having your favourite dinner, and you didn’t even have to ask for it. Or having your cat sleep at your feet when you’re feeling sick. Kaylee Bell knows how to find you when you’re feeling at your Country music-loving worst and pick you up off the floor.

Keith is a motivating, go-getting, confidence-boosting banger of a track with a poppy riff and cracking lyrics – I downloaded this bad boy and had it on repeat. I was running to Keith at the gym with an improved time, unloading my dishwasher to Keith, and dancing with my cat to Keith. My whole house loved it - the simple melody, the roaring ‘turn it up nows’ and the ‘woahs’ that even your neighbour can sing along to.

Compared to Bell’s previous work, 2019 is all about proving a more mature, slick-backed approach to music. This can be seen in the release of Who Am I, Bell’s earlier released single from this album. You’d expect a 22 year old to be singing about the fun times in life, not about the memories she had of a fun time a long time ago. It’s this that sets Kaylee Bell apart and what makes her a true Country artist – she’s not afraid to be vulnerable.

Since her last album she’s hopped back on stage with Keith Urban, opened for The Dixie Chicks and is about to perform in Nashville On Stage. This album definitely sees Bell as a more confident young woman. Her album artwork has so far seen her posing with a guitar, fully clad in leather with a fully red backdrop. A fierce stance compared to her previous work – she’s not just a young woman from the South Island anymore.

I have a lot of faith in Kaylee Bell, and I wouldn’t want to stand in her way. Her single Keith stands on its own while fitting beautifully as a title track against One More Shot and Who Am I. Keith may be considered a tribute to Keith Urban, but this country/pop summer anthem is for anyone out there who needs to feel young, wild, and a bit heartbroken again.

Rating: ( 5 / 5 )
 

About Kaylee Bell

Kaylee Bell is an artist who has already proven her international appeal having won over fans in her homeland of New Zealand and now doing likewise in Australia. Testament to this is her Gold Guitar - New Zealand’s highest accolade for country music - and her most recent crowning glory as Australia’s 2013 Toyota Star Maker.

Following her experience at the CMAA College of Country Music in 2009, 24-year-old Kaylee, from the little town of Waimate on New Zealand’s South Island, went home and set about making plans to “cross the Ditch” and carve out a career for herself.

In 2011, she did just that and, on completion of a Bachelor in Performing Arts majoring in musical theatre, in Christchurch, packed up her life and headed solo to Australia for the pursuit of success.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Kaylee Bell

Releases

Silver Linings
Year: 2021
Type: Album
Heart First
Year: 2013
Type: Album
Wayward
Year: 2010
Type: Album

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