"Solo Songs" by Anna Dagmar

a Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

Anna Dagmar is a very skilled pianist. The notes are many and complicated. Some pianists I hear and it makes me want to play so that I can duplicate it. This…never. There aren't enough years left for me to be this good. She doesn't use it on every part of every song. Sometimes the accompaniment is just chords. But the fun stuff definitely there. See, "I Can't Let Go" for an example.

Dagmar's voice is pure and soft, perhaps a little too soft. It's very pretty, I only wish she's put a little more behind her voice. I get the feeling that she is afraid to sing. She's got the skill, and hopefully in time she'll give us a little more.

Her lyrics are not immediately outstanding. They just follow the music well. However there are times when she tries to smash as many words as possible into a phrase.

She uses beautiful melodies with some minor chords, which sound really cool. At times there is a bit of a show tune-y quality to the tracks. On second listen I already was able to hum along to many of the songs. The melodies were already familiar to me. But that's not to say it's derivative or trite, not at all. In fact, I can't even come up with a strong comparison to Dagmar. She's an original. It is just that the melodies stuck with me.

That said, I would say that if you enjoy the likes of Vienna Teng, early Sarah McLachlan you will probably also like Anna Dagmar.

Stand out songs: "She's got it in her Soul" (the piano tinkling on this is great), "Midtown" and "Just After the Fall".

Posted on January 31, 2005