Music Reviews

Album Review: Emily King – ‘East Side Story’

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 5, 2007, 15:46 GMT

Emily King is the daughter of jazz duo Marion Cowings and Kim Kalesti.  So she has a musical history in her background and was exposed to music from birth.  ‘East Side Story’ is her debut album. 

However, instead of following her parents into the jazz realm she chose to gravitate more towards hip-hop, rap, and R&B.  Although King says that got her musical inspiration from every song that she’s ever heard. 

This is witnessed by her inclusion of a sample of Bruce Hornsby’s “That’s Just the Way it is” on the track “Alright.”  After the previous tracks it comes as a bit of a shock since the style was gravitating towards hip-hop on the other songs.  The song just uses the piano introduction and then moves back into the previous territory. 

She even covers Bill Whither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” and moves more into Aretha Franklin territory.  I thought that King was a good singer but sounds a bit like Mariah Carey on some of the songs.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing depending on your tolerance for Carey. 

Although her songs reflect back to other artists, King still has a voice of her own and wrote a majority of the songs on the album.  The first song she wrote “Business Man” is included on the album and “Walk in my Shoes” features Lupe Flasco. 

‘East Side Story’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information.