Before even releasing her debut, Laura Welsh underwent a series of transformations. From discarded band names—she has performed as Laura and the Tears as well as Hey Laura—to changes in style, the English singer has done her share of exploration before finally landing on her own name and a strong, confident electro-pop sound for Soft Control. It’s a big record—dramatic crescendos, orchestral arrangements, pounding percussion—for which Welsh enlisted a bevy of big name production and songwriting talent, including Emile Haynie, Dev Hynes, John Legend, and a slew of others.
While Welsh’s voice is undeniably powerful, it’s sometimes hard to differentiate her from her more well-known contemporaries. In a blind taste test, multiple songs here could be B-sides or demos from any of a number of British artists, including Florence Welch and Jessie Ware. Not bad company to be in, for sure, and Welsh is, vocally, on par with both. In fact, it’s more the fault of the sheer volume of collaboration on the album that keeps it from coalescing into a cohesive, forceful whole.
That said, Welsh makes good work of many songs on the album. The John Legend co-write "Hardest Part", with its heartbeat thump and minimal synth arrangement, allows Welsh to get her Annie Lennox on, bringing some real heat to an otherwise straightforward R&B ballad. She transitions effortlessly from her power range into a delicate, breathy upper register, and the result is natural and tender. "Unravel", produced and co-written by Dev Hynes, is more a showcase for Hynes than Welsh, who performs the song beautifully, but without any particular individuality. It’s more of a Dev Hynes song than anything else, and on a debut where Welsh is clearly trying to define her sound, it’s a loss.
Laura Welsh really shines at extremes. Whether she’s breathless and restrained on "Hardest Part", or pushing the boundaries of her voice on "God Keeps", Welsh stands out when she’s allowed to plumb the depths of real heartbreak, confusion, and discovery. On "Still Life", a gentle, whispery R&B track hidden towards the end of the record, production, writing, and vocals finally gel, with results that skew a little bit Police and a little more Sade.
For an artist who has undergone so many identity experiments before her debut, Soft Control is a promising, if not groundbreaking, beginning. Welsh has staked her claim as a singer who can adapt to the needs of her various producers and co-writers. What’s next, then? To take that claim and carve out the place as one of the electro-pop women of power she is always compared to, by making an album that is cohesive and entirely her own.
