Ella Pollett is a young (17) singer/songwriter from Hawke’s Bay who has already seen some success with Smokefree Rockquest, and will soon be playing her biggest gig to date when she opens for Rod Stewart at the Mission concert. This is her third single, following on from 2021’s Hold On, which like When I’m Gone assisted Ella in winning her section in the regional heats of SFRQ.
This is a pleasant number, with Ella’s vocals always front and centre, and as well as her riffed acoustic we get touches of steel, drums, cello, bass, electric guitar, harmony vocals and keyboards with the result being a song which straddles the boundaries of pop and country. Her singing style definitely feels like that of a young person, with lilts and lifts, sometimes moving into head voice but often also staying much more in the middle, more alto than soprano.
The song tells the story of unrequited love, having someone important in your life who means the world to you, but they do not feel the same way – maybe they will realise this once you have gone. At 3:30 there is a gentle drop off with a nice haunting vocal “you will miss me too”, and I think it would have had more impact if it had finished at that point but it then returns to the chorus and melody to bring it out to just over 4:00. Pleasant and sweet, I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from Ella in the future.
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About the author Kev Rowland
From 1990 – 2006 I ran Feedback fanzine in the UK, writing about bands that were rarely covered in the mainstream press, many of whom were in the underground scene. I built close ties with many British Progressive groups in particular, including writing the newsletter for Freewill, getting gigs for Credo and writing the introduction to Galahad’s OCMDII compilation. I reviewed literally thousands of cassettes and then CDs from bands from throughout the world, and was lucky enough to interview many of them. During this period I also contributed to the French progzine Acid Dragon, wrote for the music newspaper Rock ‘n’ Reel and was also involved with the Ghostland website. In 2006 I moved to NZ, and stopped running Feedback (which was then renamed Amplified after I left, at my request) having produced over 80 editions with more than 11,000 pages of print and heaven knows how many reviews
More by Kev Rowland
Gig Review: Crushfest @ The Tuning Fork, Auckland – 07/07/2023
Single Review: Love and War
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Single Review: Sons of Savages
Gig Review: Stray Dogs @ AUX, Auckland – 26/05/2023
Gig Review: Turkey The Bird @ The Ministry of Folk, Auckland – 27/05/2023
Single Review: Beautiful Creature
Gig Review: Emily Rice @ Your Local Coffee Roasters, Pukekohe – 24/05/2023
EP Review: Bridge City Crew
Single Review: Your Heart of Gold
Single Review: The Strangest Dream
Single Review: No Funeral Blues
