This has one of the best album titles of the year so far and it will take some beating to top, How To Weigh A Whale Without A Scale for an album title. Leanie Kaleido is a 50 year old singer songwriter and daughter of Top Topham from The Yardbirds. The album is produced by Mark Gardener from Ride.
The album opens with All The Things I'm Made of a lush gently beautiful piano led song of explanation and intent, Leanie's vocals often sound similar to Emily Capell as the beauty of this just starts to wrap itself around you.
Someone's Daughter is achingly familiar and pastorally beautiful evocation of the realization that depression doesn't have to rule your life with acoustic guitar set against a yearning cello this is quite wonderful.
Nobody's Hero has some deliciously arch lyrics about a rather narcissistic person who's gently skewered over the beautifully bucolic music that is enchanting that makes this song deceptively powerful.
The title track, How To Weigh A Whale Without A Scale is a harp led gently intoxicating vision, that will reveal more about how to find an answer to the question in the songs title.
Mr Dragonfly sounds like an early 1970's acoustic folk song that has echoes of Sandy Denny, the super sparse arrangement helps to accentuate the beauty in the vocals.
Sweet Science has to be one of the gentlest songs ever written about a sport as brutal as Boxing, as Leanie explains what it is about the Sweet Science that she loves so much as the strings make it sound such a wondrous thing this song is the musical equivalent of a rope a dope.
I really wish I'd popped a Codeine before playing this song as it would have me floating off nicely and the next time I have to take any Codeine I will be making sure to listen to this again, as the lovers tiff at the centre of this song unfolds in a far less woozy way than the music that gently builds.
Hat Thief tells a worrying tale of the purloining of Leanie's favourite titfer if the hat in question hasn't been returned already hopefully some of her fans will have gifted her a suitable new one.
Kite String Mantra is all about holding on and not letting go of that dream, you know in the end you'll get the rewards you deserve, at the very least you should get a copy of this wonderful album.
The album closes with Teapot Girl in which Leanie explains all the ways in which she is like a Teapot, this is a real Earl Grey of a song very gently warming us and helping to keep us alert and having loose leaf dreams.
The is likely to be one of the most beautiful sounding albums of 2021 find out more at http://www.leanie.com/ https://www.facebook.com/leaniekaleido
