Lindsay Ell’s ‘The Project’ In The Round Review

The start of C2C last week saw the UK physical release of Lindsay Ell’s ‘The Project’. Lindsay was one of the true stars of the festival, so to mark the release of the album, members of the Belles and Gals team have got together to write an ‘in the round review’ – each picking out a favourite song from the album.

Champagne – Emily Weall (twitter.com/EmilyJ_Weall)

Let’s just start by saying that Champagne is my jam!

Champagne starts and it immediately makes you feel like you’re in a gangster movie, it’s a slow starter, it’s jazzy and it’s everything you need when getting ready for a girls night out and want to feel a bit extra and sassy.

The slow jam and jazz makes this track a stand out on The Project and leaves behind the country genre making it perfect for every aspect and friend that you’ll be with while driving in the summer, windows down and shades on. (providing we get a summer this year, snow in March?!)

I think everyone has had the experience of being with someone that makes them feel like they’re a million dollars, and if not, then this song will certainly make them feel like someone does!

Worth the Wait – Shannon Hynes (twitter.com/s_hynesmusic)

Everything about ‘Worth the Wait’ exudes emotion. It showcases Lindsay’s superior songwriting skills and you can hear the song came from such a deep corner of her soul. Accompanied with an electric guitar only, which is unexpected from 12 tracked ‘The Project’, Lindsay’s vocal emanates such painful emotion. It’s as if you can hear the desperation in her voice, after studying the lyrics, the fact that this is portrayed is just outstanding. Lyrically, ‘Worth the Wait’ is something everyone can empathise with. Even though the melody and instrumentation is melancholy, the lyrics are so cleverly arranged that they literally break your heart, ‘your love is like a ghost that I can’t get my hands around’ whereas, ‘that’s just what you do when you believe, it’ll be worth the wait’ gives you such hope. It’s one of those songs that gets into your heart and lets you know that everything will always be OK in the end.

Castle – Lesley Hastings (twitter.com/lesleyhastings)

The song I have chosen is “Castle”, a track that Lindsay co-wrote. It emphases the need to appreciate what you already have instead of constantly striving for something better, and reminds you that “you forget what you can lose when you only see what you can gain”. It has a great blues/funk vibe and as with the entire album, Lindsay’s guitar and vocals are stunning. There are some clever analogies in the lyrics, the punch line in the chorus being “even if we had a house upon a hill, I bet we’d want a castle”.

Waiting on You – Katie Louise Ingram (twitter.com/xkatie19x)

Waiting on you, my favourite jam off the album, is the perfect opening track and is going to be the first UK single release off the album. Although the beginning is portrayed as a wear your heart on your sleeve kind of love song, as the song progresses you can see its so much more than that – its kind of a warning message not to mess around with Lindsay as she’s not the kind to wait around while they get their act together. The bluesy feel to the song and guitar skills of this beauty along with the incredible vocal make this the perfect song choice for Lindsay to appeal to a UK audience and that’s why she has chosen it as her debut UK single. This is evidently a crowd pleaser with fans when played live too. This was recently portrayed at her C2C Festival Debut last week along with her insane guitar skills and stage presence – this song is sure to be a sure fire hit when released in UK.

Space – Nick Cantwell (twitter.com/nickbelles_gals)

This song starts with the line ‘I’m running out of air up here, so far our out of your atmosphere’, which sets the desolate theme of ‘Space’ perfectly. It’s a moving song about the struggling to deal with another needing that ‘space’ in a relationship, while throughout the song there are space analogies, relating to the loneliness of the situation. The production of the song is perfect, with Lindsay’s almost breathless vocals cutting through the bare production in the early part of the track. The song builds to an incredible end, when the emotion in the pleading vocals cuts straight through you – ‘Screaming at the moon, how the hell am I supposed to be without you?’ the standout line of a stunning track.