You only need to watch a couple of Le Rive’s videos to get a distinct feel for her sound, for her style, and for what she’s about musically. This recent cover series entitled Under The Covers offers a notably unique personal style that somehow fuses a number of different songs from different artists in a fresh and smoothly connected manner.
This particular mash-up takes the likes of Tove Lo, Justin Bieber, and Timbaland, presenting each in a way that makes them seem like Le Rive originals. The hooks are obviously familiar, you recognise the essence of each track for the media coverage they received, but the personality and tone of both Le Rive’s performance and producer Paul Sikes’ creative mix gives the sound a completely new vibe. The brightness and colour of each song remains in tact, yet there’s a certain smoothness to these versions – the meeting of the organic acoustic guitar, the electronic beat, and Le Rive’s characterful, confident, flawless vocals, creates something surprisingly spacious and consistently enjoyable.
Creatively, the mash-up seems an unlikely meeting of releases, but the artists involved have made it work. The musicality throughout is vibrant and forever interesting, even minimal on occasion – falling away almost entirely at certain moments. On top of this, there’s an inherent sense of emotion at precisely the moments that require a little humanity and realness. Le Rive perfectly underlines the increasing depth and passion of the three songs, leading finally to a mellow and extremely moving rendition of Apologize. The arrangement of the three tracks builds you up effectively to this point. It’s an unpredictable fusion of tracks, as stated earlier, but it works beautifully. The concept is exciting, being all at once familiar and fresh – recognisable yet new.
As a performer, Le Rive showcases everything required to make this kind of music reach out, particularly in a live setting. The accompanying video realistically and wonderfully highlights her stage presence and her abilities as a singer, and fortunately – there’s plenty more to come.
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