When one decides to pursue a career in the music industry, choices must be made. One of those choices is whether to follow in the footsteps of what’s currently popular, ensuring at least one hit and most-likely decent sales, or to break out on one’s own, releasing music that is true and artistic, a reflection of the artist’s actual intentions and not those of a company blinded by the dollar sign.

Kelly Sweet, a bubbly eighteen year-old with vibrant red locks and a passion for piano-led ballads (reminiscent, at least in looks and partly in sound, of a young Tori Amos, perhaps?), is one of the latter, a young woman with ambitions and a vision. Rather than take whatever was handed to her, Sweet – who has been singing since childhood and writing songs since she was twelve – chose instead to sit and wait, because she didn’t want to make “just any old record”. She wanted to make the perfect record for her – not pop, not jazz, but something unique to herself.

We Are One, Sweet’s debut album, was the result of that journey. Although it’s not made a splash on the charts, the album is a delightful piece of work that, while similar in many respects to albums by older, more experienced artists like Josh Groban, has a flair of youth and freshness about it that makes it worth listening to again and again.

To be fair, though, the album is not without its faults. Most of the twelve tracks here are ballads, and although they’re different enough from each other to not sound similar, the almost-complete absence of upbeat tracks (save the bouncy, guitar-led How ‘Bout You) might make the album start to drag for some.

In addition, there are tracks here that either 1) just don’t work or 2) seem like unnecessary filler. Crush is one of the former, an agonizingly-slow piece underscored by a repetitive and annoying guitar line that, even with Sweet’s pristine voice, manages to bore. This is due in part to the arrangement (which over-uses vocal effects to, as one review puts it, give the impression that “Sweet is having a conversation with herself”) and Sweet’s trite, repetitive lyrics, as well as Sweet’s performance, which features some oddly-clipped phrasing.

On the filler side of things, we have Caresse sur l’ocean, a one-minute interlude, sung in French, that seems to exist simply to show that yes, Kelly Sweet can sing in multiple languages (as if the rest of the record doesn’t demonstrate that perfectly). Oddly reminiscent of an Enya track (right down to the resonating violins that open the track), the song displays Sweet’s lovely soprano well, but is too short to really make much of an impact. That, and the fact that it leads into the disastrous Crush, make it a bit of a dud.

Apart from those two mishaps early on, We Are One is an album that is deserving of all the praise it’s getting. Sweet is a talented and competent vocalist with range and emotion to spare. Adult contemporary top ten hit Raincoat, a laid-back slice of bluesy smooth-jazz, shows Sweet’s sassier, sensual side, while her cover of Aerosmith’s Dream On (which I prefer to the original) transforms the track into a haunting, almost prayer-like piano ballad that utilizes vocal manipulation to much-greater effect than, say, Crush.

Other notable tracks include a note-for-note cover of Lisa Gerrard’s exquisitely-beautiful Now We Are Free (from Gladiator) that, again, is better than the original, if only because Sweet’s higher-pitched voice is a better fit for fits Hans Zimmer’s beautifully-composed music; Ready for Love, a lush piano ballad that Sweet simply dances over, her delivery as impassioned and emotional as a bride at the altar; and Je t’aime, a quiet, unassuming lullaby that, in addition to being performed in, manages to rhyme English and French. It’s the perfect way to wind down this beautiful album.

I’m giving We Are One a high four-star rating – while there are many good things here, there are also some songs that kill the flow of the album and keep it out of five-star territory. Regardless, keep an eye (and ear) on Kelly Sweet – she’s got talent to spare, and while she probably won’t ever be the most commercially successful, that doesn’t matter when the music’s good.

Kelly Sweet: “We Are One”
[ CDA | Razor & Tie | $16.98 | 2007.03.06 ]

01. We Are One [ 3:36 ]
02. Raincoat [ 3:50 ]
03. Dream On [ 3:29 ]
04. Caresse sur l’ocean [ 1:13 ]
05. Crush [ 3:58 ]
06. Ready for Love [ 4:19 ]
07. Giorno Dopo Giorno [ 4:19 ]
08. I Will Be Waiting [ 3:41 ]
09. Now We Are Free [ 4:23 ]
10. How ‘Bout You [ 3:42 ]
11. Love Song [ 3:34 ]
12. Je t’aime [ 2:43 ]

[ http://www.kelly-sweet.com/ ]
[ http://www.myspace.com/kellysweetmusic ]

Recommended: Yes