I have a terrible confession. It's pretty bad...brace yourselves...I watch Australian Idol. When questioned I blame my mother (as I do with most things) and say that I only watch it because she does. But this simply is not true as I actually quite enjoy it and have watched almost every series. Why is it that I am made to feel ashamed to admit that I enjoy watching people of varying skill enjoy an evening of karaoke? Need I say more...
But in the same way that I can enjoy watching trashy T.V on E! as well as Oscar winning films, I take Idol as pure entertainment with any presence of talent only as a bonus. And so because of this, when a beautiful and original voice does come along it can easily be detected. Unfortunately, or probably quite fortunately, the shows tween and house wife target market doesn't really share my love for interesting sounds and would rather stick to the cookie-cutter mould of the diva-whether boy or girl. The result is that occasionally a star slips through the scarily lit Idol stage, and several years later bounces into the charts.
Introducing Lisa Mitchell. She came sixth on the 2006 Australia Idol and since then she has been gigging around in support of artists like Old Man River and Evermore. Mitchell is one of a string of girls who has been compared to Joanna Newsom in recent years, and although such a comparison is warranted, I feel that Mitchell's sound is much more approachable and easier to listen to. After two EP's, Lisa Mitchell is releasing her first full length album The Attic Space on November 15th. With input from Clare Bowditch, Ben Lee and Kevin Mitchell aka Bob Evans this debut is sure to make a significant impact on the Australian music scene.
I recently caught an interview with Mitchell on the radio and was sadly a little unimpressed. Understandably she is still only a baby at 17. But one of the joys of a singer-songwriter is their gift of musically communicating a story or theme that is important and meaningful to them. However, when she was asked what Neapolitan Dreams was about she had next to nothing to say. Even a little joke about Neapolitan ice cream didn't receive much of a laugh. Lisa Mitchell is an immensely talented artist but will definitely need to work on selling herself if she wants to go up in lights.
