Blue on Blue in Review
It's a strange kind of feeling, releasing an album of songs that you worked on, alone, for so long and then finally recorded with friends. Of course it's great to make them public after so long, but it's also a little scary. Like going on a stage with a target on your chest. So I'm sure you can imagine I've been totally blown away by the great reviews it's received. Â Dozens of them, with a handful naming it as among the best of the year. Below are excerpts from a few of my favourites, with links for anybody wanting to read more. I'll be adding more reviews and features later, and on my "Sounds" page as soon as I can.
Thanks so much everyone. And if you've bought my album - or heard it on Spotify or wherever - drop me a line via my contact page and please let me know what you think.
"Sylvie's follow-up to her rapturously acclaimed self-titled debut is a bejewelled beauty. So beautiful... A shining accomplishment." - The Mirror, UK
"A second album of devilishly delicate songs - led by the ukulele, an instrument that's not often allowed to conjure up such a fragile, otherworldly atmosphere... Each song develops like a short, beautiful film." - MOJO, UK
"Very, very beautiful. There’s no question that records this good are worth the wait." - Folk Radio magazine, UK https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2020/08/sylvie-simmons-blue-on-blue/
"Sylvie surprised everyone with her sublime ukulele-driven debut album six years ago. [Her follow-up] is full of delicate songs and intelligent lyrics." - Scottish Express, UK
"Like Leonard Cohen, Simmons finds the beautiful, the joyful, even the sacred, in the dark and profane. Her English-accented, somewhat fragile voice differs greatly from Cohen’s almost gothic intonation, but the similarity is there. Blue on Blue is deep, powerful stuff, honest, brave, and unflinching, poetic and lyrical." - Lyric Magazine, UK
"Blue on Blue is intimate, dreamy and beautifully melancholic. It carries a lifetime of in-depth musical exploration." Aquarium Drunkard, US https://tinyurl.com/yygubdpo
"Blue on Blue shuts down any argument that Simmons is a dilettante when it comes to performing, she's an artist who has made a satisfying and expressive work of art not once, but twice."- Allmusic.com. https://www.allmusic.com/album/blue-on-blue-mw0003394658
"With appealing grace and timeless style, Blue on Blue shows that the second time also can be a charm." - Associated Press US https://apnews.com/6277c01e7a86f73f29c150a618a2509e
"Blue on Blue turns the neat trick of being both downbeat and uplifting in equal measure. It’s perfect nighttime listening for a COVID world going mad from isolation and angst." - Hollywood Times
"With Blue on Blue, she’s delivered another quietly mesmerizing collection of deceptively wistful and insinuating songs that flow on a gentle pulse, carrying more than a trace of Cohen’s unmistakable literary DNA." - San Francisco Chronicle, US