Brooke Moriber, native New York, is no stranger to spotlights. Since her entertainment career began in earnest at age fifteen, Moriber has enjoyed considerable success as an actress. She has appeared in seven Broadway productions, numerous commercials, and landed guest spots on a handful of high profile television productions. Her stage career has called upon her to use her equally considerable musical talents. Her roles in musical theater have found her working closely with such vocal greats as Cyndi Lauper, among many others. Her music, likewise, has appeared on a number of television programs and feature films, but her latest project, an upcoming music EP, promises to open an exciting new chapter in her and the first single from the release, “Fire”, is a worthy introduction to her talents.
Few craft pop music as sturdy as this. Even after one listen to this release, you will likely be entirely satisfied with the superb unity and structure of the track. Predictability is often a killer when listening to new artists, but inevitability is another matter entirely. The line is a fine one to walk. Predictability means imitation – the performer co-opts a number of elements from more successful artists and grafts their point of view onto the mimicry in a shoehorned, arbitrary way. Inevitability, however, is a much different animal. Inevitability resonates with his emotionally – drawn into the track’s musical swirl, our senses are primed for climaxes to arrive at the right places and for the song, in general, to resolve itself in an emotionally resonate way. “Fire” accomplishes this and more. The verses and chorus alike are packed with dramatic sweep and thrilling moments.
It is instrumentally driven by electric piano, warm automated drums, and a tasteful sheen of keyboards/electronics. The electric piano provides much of the song’s melodic underpinning while the keyboard work fills the track with unobtrusive color. The drum track, despite being a studio product rather than live, doesn’t harken back to the sterile thwap-whack of eighties or nineties pop but, instead, locks down the tempo without ever sounding pre-programmed. Guitar makes a surprising appearance near the end of each chorus reprise and its brief flurry of urgent chords strengthens the song considerably.
Moriber’s vocals are notably live throughout and the only discernible moment of studio trickery applied to them is a double-tracked effect on the choruses. Otherwise, she carries the song with a palpable immediacy, aiming for power and sensitivity in equal measure. The choruses, in particular, benefit from her deft mix of the two, but the verses benefit more from her attentiveness to the song’s message. The lyrical content is often quite thoughtful and a high step above most pop fare.
If “Fire” is any indication of the EP’s quality, Brooke Moriber’s recorded debut will be an event for fans of top shelf pop music and usher in a whole new level of attention for Moriber and her memorable talents. This is as fine as it gets with big league pop and we can expect to hear more like this from her in the future.
https://www.instagram.com/brookemoriber/
URL: http://brookemoriber.com/
Jason Hillenburg
4/5 STars
