With her new EP, ‘Hope & Heartbreak’, Natania Lalwani has succeeded in bringing together a combination of solid songwriting and creative musical arrangement.
Bringing experience from her roots in Mumbai, India, and her graduation from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, she gives us a wide range of musicality and creative lyricism. Showing a very real part of her heart, Hope and Heartbreak takes us to a personal place in her life as she shares the many trials and triumphs of love.
Starting off the album with her debut single Cherry Love she instantly draws a smile with her whimsical lyrics, “you taste like sorbet on a sunny day.”
The playful mood she shows at the start of the song holds true for the full duration of the track, with the sweet accent of chimes throughout; hand-clapping filling the song after the bridge, you can tell that careful thought was given to every detail. While the catchy chorus “my cherry love, cherry love, cherry love” mimics the title, making it easily remembered, it also sums up the flirtatious lyric. Finishing the song with a “distant” round of the chorus, the song leaves you feeling joyful and ready to repeat; and ready to smile along with it all over again.
In the second number, ‘The Other End Of The Line’, Natania demonstrates the sensitive side of her voice. The first song on the album to talk about heartbreak, she does an excellent job of creating a rise and fall through the song. Instead of the lyrics being depressing (as some heartbreak songs inevitably are) Natania uses the soft texture of her voice to urge you to sympathize and understand her emotion, while her lyrics paint a compelling story in your mind. The soft steady rhythm slowly builds, with a sudden drop off into the bridge accompanied only by the piano;
“I thought I could understand it,
I thought I could see the in between bits of you and me.”
She then shifts gear into a powerfully high and beautiful “we tried like crazy, we tried like crazy” showing off the wide range of her vocal ability.
Once again she shows the vulnerability she has shared within the album on ‘Still Can’t Let You Go’. Bringing in male vocals from Ricky England, the duo feed off each other wonderfully to produce a beautiful harmony. The simple collaboration of guitar, vocals and piano for the first half of the song is simple, catchy, and beautiful. When the snare does come in, it’s not over complicated, but just enough to fill the song and make it complete.
Finishing off the album with a catchy track Baby You’re Beautiful. It starts off with some head-bobbing guitar work. The song lyrically presents questions to Natania herself, followed by answers from the purest feelings of love. Again she shows her wide range vocally as she effortlessly transitions into her falsetto, adding emphasis to key words in the song.
With a total of six songs on the album; including the bonus track, Natania gives a good balance of love versus loss. Throughout the album there is an impressive dynamic, including beautiful acoustic guitar finger-picking for the bonus track, ‘Carelessly Captivated’. Creating a warm and cozy feeling, this would be a perfect song to listen to on a cold winter night, while you’re curled up with that special someone.
Each track on the album has it’s own unique sound, leaving a distinct mark, and no two tracks leave the impression of being ‘samey’. Again, you can see the how much thought for detail was invested in each track, the production, and for the album as a whole.
The album is more than worthy, and overall a very pleasant listen. You can read more about Natania, and listen to a few of her tracks from ‘Hope and Heartbreak’ here.
by Pranam Bai Richter, Head of Global Publicity
