Haunted by You from the artist Rachael Sage is a mixture of intimate songs with a mellow tone to them. Her music has this mellow tempo for pop songs with some hint of country in some of the songs. What little country that I was hearing in the songs was mainly coming from her voice. Rachael Sage sings these songs with passion while keeping that passion in control rather than being belted out in loud squeaky tones. There’s also non of that typical sound that the more popular pop songs have where the singer is either trying to disguise her voice by being loud or in using a machine to filter out the fact that they can’t sing. Along with that the lyrics have some meaning to them and are interesting instead of being about trying to seduce someone or being angry at someone.
Now to what attracted me to the songs on Haunted by You, Rachael Sage’s voice. I’ve seen it used before on descriptions for albums, on commercials, and books, but this is one of the rare times that I can say that the sound of Rachael Sage’s voice reminds me of smooth chocolate. She has a strong voice that gives her songs power and softness without the need to actually raise her levels. It’s actually refreshing to hear someone sing a song where the vocals don’t sound like they are being forced on me. Add to the sound of Rachael Sage’s voice is the lyrics. Though the lyrics are emotional, it’s the emotion that makes the songs work and have some meaning. Instead of sounding like a song that has words put together to form a song that seems to have some sort of meaning, the songs tell a story with real meaning.
With the reasons that I liked Haunted by You they’re also part of the reason what I didn’t like the album. Yes Rachael Sage has a really good voice where she is tells a emotional story in the songs but it’s also a little too slow at times. While listening to the songs there were moments that the songs just faded away from my attention. It was one of those moments that I knew I had listened to the song but I couldn’t remember listening to it. Even after I went back to listen to the songs for a second time and even with telling myself to pay attention, the songs would just slowly blend away. It’s around the middle of the album that the songs start to loose their power and I chalk this up to how the tempo remains similar throughout all of the songs. That tempo, though a well constructed sound, easily blends into one sound that can be heard by just listening to one or two of the songs and being done. If I were to only listen to one or two songs at any given time I would enjoy them more but by listening to the whole album during on sitting, I will become distracted too easily.