Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Wanderlust (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Wanderlust (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:01 minutes | 462 MB | Genre: Pop Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EBGB’s

In January 2014 Sophie will release her fifth album, Wanderlust, a record co-written and produced by acclaimed singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt and recorded in just two weeks with a tightly-knit group of musician friends. The record sees the 34-year-old Sophie blossoming into an accomplished singer-songwriter, with its 11 powerfully understated songs showcasing a newfound maturity, warmth and songcraft. Wanderlust will be preceded by the single release of one of its standout tracks, Young Blood, a life-affirming, piano-driven testament to true love. That song, which comes accompanied by another of Muller’s trademark videos, marks the beginning of a glorious new chapter in her career.

Always a dedicated follower of fashion, twisting and turning her music to fit the times, Sophie Ellis-Bextor takes an accurate gauge of the styles of 2014 on Wanderlust. Swinging away from the electro-pop that defined the earliest days of her solo career, Ellis-Bextor opts for an exercise in handsome retro glamour here, a move perhaps partially inspired by Lana Del Rey, the Californian queen who has a virtual patent on neo-Hollywood glamour, but Ellis-Bextor retains a European sensibility, spending as much time with big ballads and cabaret as she does with doomed soundscapes. More importantly, she’s enlisted Ed Harcourt as her collaborator for Wanderlust, and he gives these songs a glam grandiosity that is explicitly theatrical yet rarely excessive. As a producer, Harcourt creates an opulent setting for Ellis-Bextor’s defiantly mannered vocals, and the contrast is often alluring; the music emotes whenever the singer refuses to indulge. Wanderlust is at its best when it’s slightly dexterous (as on the girl group homage “Runaway Daydreamer”) and it can get bogged down in pretension (as on the ceaseless pomp of “Love Is a Camera”), but it’s always exquisitely sculpted and better for its attention to detail.

Tracklist:
1-1. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Birth of An Empire (03:48)
1-2. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Until the Stars Collide (03:39)
1-3. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Runaway Daydreamer (04:00)
1-4. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – The Deer & the Wolf (03:54)
1-5. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Young Blood (04:28)
1-6. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Interlude (02:23)
1-7. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – 13 Little Dolls (03:32)
1-8. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Wrong Side of the Sun (03:50)
1-9. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Love Is a Camera (04:13)
1-10. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Cry to the Beat of the Band (03:38)
1-11. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – When the Storm Has Blown Over (03:31)

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