Philadelphia! As vintage movie buff I will always remember W.C. Fields and his quotes about Philadelphia like “Last week, I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed.” or in a conversation with a hangman “Have you any last wish?” - Fields: “Yes, I’d like to see Paris before I die. (pause) Philadelphia will do.”
Musicwise Philly looks like the place to be these days with lots of good musicians. Natural Selection is another fantastic collective of musicians hailing from the city of brotherly love. And a name you should keep in mind!
Alesia Dessau formed Natural Selection in 1996 as a jazz quartet. But by 2006 they have adopted an organic lively soul sound which will certainly appeal to fans of Fertile Ground, Seek, Jazzhole or Sirius B Project.
Altogether eleven musicians participated on this album. Attentive readers of this website will remember Monica McIntyre from the Monica Dillion album All I Have Is A Moment. On Come On Over she appears as cellist and background vocalist. And it’s her cello that grabs your attention on the albums opener Meant To Be, a powerful midtempo soul song. Just like on Monica Dillon’s album I think the cello is a great instrument to give a soul song more depth and that goose pimples feeling. And I wish it could be heard more often in this context.
Naturally Alesia’s impressive voice and songwriting talent have a equal contribution to the greatness of this album. And actually I could praise all eleven songs here, they are all quality stuff with a capital Q. Take Get Through for example, a great soul song with an uplifting message. Now You’re Gone is another winner with its warm instrumentation and Alesia’s emotional vocal input. The beautiful ballad Come Into My Love with its heartfelt lyrics adds further proof that this is simply a must have album for any true soul music fan.
Come On Over is an album I can recommend wholeheartedly and it’s already one of my favourite albums for 2006.
I began this review with W.C. Fields, so why not close it with a quote from him: “All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”

Tracklisting of Come On Over: 1. Meant To Be/ 2. 10/15/01/ 3. Get Through/ 4. Come On Over/ 5. Unity/ 6. Now You’re Gone/ 7. Fly Away/ 8. Sweet Intruder/ 9. Come Into My Love/ 10. Make It Easy/ 11. Time To Say Goodbye | released 2005 Natural Selection

For more infos visit naturalselectionmusic.com and cdbaby.com.

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