Review: KT Tunstall Live

This won’t be so much as a review as a fan-girl gush-session about KT Tunstall’s concert on 27th March. First of all, I have to thank Pirate for the tickets, without which my student wallet would not have made it to the concert.

There was a mile-long queue outside the hall before the concert started, Pirate and I couldn’t believe that this many people had turned up to see her. Half of the attendees seemed to be Caucasians, which was a pity, because really, more locals need to know her.

My New Love

I’ve gone 20 years of my life without seriously obsessing over any celebrity. Seriously, I couldn’t care less, and if ever I did appear to be a “fan”, it was just because I needed to appear like a normal person who did care.

Until I discovered KT Tunstall. You may remember how I recommended her music before. My love for her music has grown exponentially since, enough to actually go for her concert at the end of March, which I’ve never done for any other artiste. And I am actually starting to appreciate her as a person – ironically because they don’t sell her as a personality. How do you not like this self-lyric-writing, self-guitar-playing, self-singing, talented artiste? How do you not appreciate her genuine commitment to the ecology? For once, the music is not all about sex and love, or gangsters shooting each other up.

And need I mention how much it helps that she pings my gaydar like no one’s business? Okay that is not the main reason, duh, but the fact that she looks like a regular girl, and not a made-up Barbie doll, and the fact that I just love dykey-but-not-masculine-looking women, solidifies my adoration for her. I don’t want to bed her, I just want her to remain as an example to all the people out there that you don’t need to be all girly and sexy to make it as a solo female artiste. [Yes, I know you are still there, Melissa Etheridge, you rock my world too with the way you survived breast cancer and had twins.] Not that she isn’t sexy, which once again is ironic, because I find her sexy because they don’t sell her as sexy.

Dear KT – I shall buy every one of your albums once I can afford to, because I think you are one of the few gems of musicians who deserve it, in this fucked-up music industry built on sex appeal, image-driven sales, and hormonal teenage girls and boys.

Music Discovery

This will be a new segment on this blog: Song Recommendation of the Day/Week/Month. I’ll try to post not-so-mainstream music.

Title: Hopeless

Artist: KT Tunstall

Album: Drastic Fantastic

KT Tunstall’s album can only be described as soulful new age rock, and is highly reminsicent of Inara George in its dreamy, sleepy-sunday-afternoon melodies. Hopeless is a fairly upbeat song with paradoxically existential lyrics. It borrows a few notes from folk music, leading to a truly enjoyable and addictive melody.

Other recommendations from this album include White Bird and Hold On. Hold On is a comparatively fast-paced number compared to the other songs, and highly experimental, using a decidedly non-western beat and plucked Asian strings.

Thanks to Zixian for introducing me to this artist!