Emma-Lee

"Never Just a Dream" Reviews!
"Toronto singer Emma-Lee, 25, is blessed with a delicate yet potent sound that harkens to kd lang and Madeleine Peyroux. Her brand of ethereal pop has doo-wop, country and blues accents bolstered by handclaps, folky guitar and cat-and-mouse strings. And she's a top-shelf songwriter, serving up tunes that explore all things romantic – jealousy, rebounding, May-December pairings – with Rickie Lee Jones honesty, Amy Winehouse sauciness and rapper-slick immortality.She's destined for big things."
- The Toronto Star, 4/4 review by Ashante Infantry
"Clearly, Never Just a Dream, is an auspicious beginning. The languid Where You Want to Be promises more to come. "I won't settle, no not a little bit," Emma-Lee sings, "you don't get me, I'm not the type to quit." Evidently so. "
- The Globe & Mail, ***1/2 star 'disc of the week' review by Brad Wheeler
"'Emma-Lee's debut, Never Just a Dream, sounds like it could have been born somewhere between San Antonio, Texas and Sao Paulo, Brazil. It's a big, luscious album with a touch of Patsy Cline's country heartbreak set against Astrud Gilberto's ease-and-flow bossa nova. We love it."
- iTunes Canada
"Never Just a Dream is one of the most exciting albums of the year so far, and Emma-Lee, the twenty-five year old singer behind its creation has the most beautiful voice I have heard in recent memory. Like Tracy Chapman's 1988 debut, it is an album so full of ideas and potential that it is hard to know how to properly frame a description of its contents. It is a collection of songs that is far more than the sum of its influences. Emma-Lee is just starting out on her career, yet one can hear that she is clearly charting an exciting musical course that is all her own. Never Just a Dream is an epic debut that sounds better with every listen. Emma-Lee may be the voice to remember from 2009. Highly recommended."
- No Depression
"an incredible.totally incredible.songwriter of the highest callibre. All ten tracks on this album sound like classics from the past that you have never heard before. If you haven't heard of her yet, you can bet your socks that you will be hearing a lot about Emma-Lee in the coming months. This girl is a total knock out!"
- BabySue.com
"'Lyrics born from painful personal experience combined with soothing, soaring melodies make this freshman effort one of the more impressive debuts this year."
- Mark Rheaume, CBC Radio
"The luscious landscape of "That Sinking Feeling" sets the proper mood for what you're going to get; a genre-defying balance of songs that are flawlessly produced to compliment one of Canada's best-undiscovered secrets: Emma-Lee's voice."
- Oxyfication.net, Justin Holt
"She's got a strong, emotive voice, and the production is lush and natural-sounding.Lots of jazzy vocalists can sing nice, comfortable music, but not many play with the conventions creatively, which is where she shines."
- NOW Magazine, by Benjamin Boles
"'Emma-Lee is quite clearly a polished and gifted performer and she certainly delivers her songs with inherent tenderness, cute breathiness and ballsy finesse. 'Never Just A Dream' is quality and class - an emotionally charged journey, a sensitively portrayed trip into hearts and minds."
- toxicpete.co.uk