Gig review: Caro Emerald, Glasgow ABC

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on 19/03/2012 02:03

CARO Emerald has slayed the charts in her native Holland with her debut album Deleted Scenes From the Cutting Room Floor, but her perky pop pastiche of big band swing and Latin jazz has not done too shabbily further afield, leading to an easy listening Sunday night sell-out in Glasgow.

This graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory wears her vocal training lightly, tapping into the cutesy throwback sounds of Paloma Faith or Candyman-era Christina Aguilera, as well as the Puppini Sisters’ more rigorously stylised evocation of the female vocal harmony groups of the Forties and Fifties.

But Emerald’s slick showbiz production – get your imitation floral hair pieces from the comprehensively stocked merchandise stall – was so thoroughly honed after playing these songs for the past couple of years that it verged on themed cabaret.

Breakthrough hit Back It Up was teased out into a banal call-and-response routine with the audience. There was at least a hint of feline prowl to The Other Woman and some brass growl applied to the chipper Andrews Sisters imitation That Man but nothing too taxing for your average Michael Buble fan.

Her well-turned-out band were solid but uninspired, failing to breathe atmosphere, charm or a richness of sound into the arrangements, while the contributions of a DJ, bearing sampled input of varying relevance, felt like a forced embellishment, imposing a pointless 21st century twist on an old recipe.

Rating: **