Sometimes, a simple slew of piano keys summarizes the tone of an entire composition long before lyrics ever enter the picture, and though it can certainly be said that there’s more to Soliloquy’s lead-off track “A Place in Your Heart” than its piano part, this doesn’t make its intro any less spellbinding. In this first of five included songs on Kimberlye Gold’s new EP, the fragility of the lyrical content is balanced by a muscularity to the acoustic guitar’s patterned rhythm as opposed to the other way around, as if to suggest a brokenness within our singer that can only be mended through some devoted sessions spent with her instrumental backdrop – and the friends contributing to it here. It’s intimate and beautiful on so many levels for me as a critic, but as a fan of good music in general, it’s the right way to kick off any record, whether it be an extended play, album, or anything in between.
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“A Place in Your Heart” is followed by an angsty cover of The Young Rascals’ “How Can I Be Sure,” which hesitantly stomps into focus only to create one of the most endearing swing-fests in the tracklist. This tune isn’t quite the spunky piece of optimism “Nowhere to Go But Gone” is from a poetic standpoint, but I like that Gold stacked them together in this tracklist almost as a way of highlighting the anti-rigidity of her aesthetic. She has no problem being loose and following no other framework other than her creative wit in this EP, and for a songwriter who has been around for a while now, she sounds as fresh and unjaded by every aspect of the recording process as a newcomer to the industry would.
“The Right Kind of No” keeps the nimble feel of “Nowhere to Go But Gone” going strong, with its moderate percussive component taking on more of a starring role as we push through the track. Gold is so completely at ease with her surroundings, basking in the color of her craft and coupling every beat with something a little personal within the very tone of her execution, and even though I have a feeling that most if not all of this material would sound even better live, she isn’t holding back from giving us a stage-caliber performance in the studio here. It can be hard to conjure up the same kind of emotion we’d get in a concert, but I think she does a good job of getting us pretty close to the real thing in this single-worthy song.
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Soliloquy concludes with the crusher of a ballad “Who We Are Now,” alluding to a more sensitive Kimberlye Gold that could easily outgrow the limited resources of her underground scene a lot sooner than later. she doesn’t translate as someone comfortable sitting in the background here at all; if I’m being totally honest, I think the angst-ridden undertow in “How Can I Be Sure” is all the evidence we need to confirm that Gold’s ambitions are going to carry her a little further from home than this record’s title would imply she’s interested in. I can’t wait to witness the adventure unfold for myself, and if I’m right about her potential, Soliloquy is only the first few steps.
Garth Thomas