The whole shebang opens up with the cute and airy "Crazy Glue". This song is coming at you for perfect timing, as it seeps "summer track" from every pore of it's being. This track has everything that would make you want to lounge out in the sun, and it's pretty hard to explain why. It's got the light vocals and the steady acoustic guitar. The theme of the track is about being so in love with someone you just want to be with them as much as possible. The obvious solution is to glue yourself to them with an adhesive. It's a metaphor of course, but I'm allowed to crack a joke. This is my site.
Genres quickly change with the second track "Fire Breather". As the title track, I had high hopes for this, and they are perfectly realized. It's not often that I like a song with a reggae vibe, but her voice is so amazing an intoxicating that she could sing about swiss cheese and keep my attention. The lyrics are quick and sharp during the verses and more drawn out and emphasized during the chorus. I know being on a TV show blends the lines of "indie" and "mainstream" but she's certainly done an amazing job with what she has. This is easily the best track on the entire EP, and if it's not the next single, I may have to weep for the indie music industry.
"Sing Me" is the album's best selling track. I'm not really sure why, when the track before it was golden. This one is a bit more low-key in that it's not so epic and moving. It provides a simpler side to this multifaceted artist. The song is about wanting a boy to take the lead and woo her. I really appreciate the metaphors and lyrical bits she's done, but this song didn't grab me as strongly as the others. I guess my opinions aren't always so in line with everyone else, because this track has received a lot of praise. Maybe I'm just not a slow-song man.
By this point in the EP, I was growing very fond of the acoustic guitar, which is probably why I really enjoyed "From Up High" so much. It was a bare song, featuring mainly just Naia and her guitar. This is the kind of song you could walk into a coffee house and hear an artist playing in an intimate setting. I think that is what makes the track stand out the way it does. It borders into country from time to time as it progresses, and incorporates more instruments (and voices and clapping) as it progresses, but at the core it remains a very raw track giving us a taste of what she's made of. THIS is the song I would most want to hear live from her. Bring on a St. Louis show, my dear!
Bringing up the end of the work is the much more pop focused "Pick Up The Pieces". This track is probably "the most TOTU" this EP gets, in regards to what I usually post here (not that I didn't enjoy the album anyway). What I really like about this song is that she sounds like her voice is hushed a bit, tying into the theme of the track, which is being in the middle of healing from a heartbreak. She is having to pick up the pieces of her life. This was a wonderful way to exit from this session. It also leaves people wanting more.
Fire Breather serves as an introduction to who Naia Kete is. She was on The Voice, but she seems to be well aware that TV isn't as honest or as tell-all as music can be. With this release, she invites everyone into her life, and shares many stories, even if they are coated in metaphors and similes. The EP shows us what we didn't get to see on the show. Music has a way of transcending genres, and even if her style may not be exactly what you listen to, her flawless voice and her knack for the acoustic may just win you over yet.
This brings me to my only real flaw I found with the EP. It is her first release, and it feels a bit like she was testing the waters a little too much. Instead of picking one genre, she picked five (some being mixed in different songs). We had pop, reggae, country, jazz, singer-songwriter, as well as a few others. It leaves me a bit puzzled as to what direction she will go in once her career starts moving full force. Of course many artists have the occasional track in a different style or genre, but Fire Breather leaves me wondering which genre will be her "main gig" and which will be "just experimentation."
I honestly enjoyed this EP more than I had originally thought. Many have drawn conclusions to Jason Mraz, which I find a bit unfair. The only track that even screams this to me would be "Crazy Glue" but even that would be a stretch. I try my best not to compare artists to another, because in the end, they are all their own people and will develop in their own way. I look forward to seeing what else Naia Kete has in store for the world. This EP was a good start. Keep it coming, lady!
You can snag the EP on iTunes.
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