Marike Jager - Celia Trigger (2008/2019) [Hi-Res]

mdekoning
With more interesting instrumentation, better playing and singing, better songs, better production and lots of different styles, this is an improvement over her 2006 debut The beauty around. She sounds just as confident on pop songs such as the title track and "Radio" as on quiet ballads on the acoustic guitar ("Winner") or the piano ("Bucket full of ice" or "Like you"). There's also still some of the jazzy folk pop of her first album with "Honey, honey". Best of all is the beautiful "Easy" with its lovely Hammond B3 and one of Marike Jager's finest vocals. Never groundbreaking, but always superbly performed and always enjoyable. Jager does here what Stevie Ann did with Closer to the heart last year: she proves that she's more than just a folk pop singer/songwriter and that if she can continue to write songs as good as these this will be a career worth following. Yes, the Netherlands has not 1 but 2 talented singer/songwriters.