West End chanteuse Emma Lindars channels some seriously impressive vocal power on album As We Grow Older
“You were the one who said forever from the start”
Anyone who was in Made in Dagenham scores points with me, so spotting that Emma Lindars had released an album earlier this year – As We Grow Older – which features a mixture of musical theatre and contemporary pop. Lindars’ resume takes in all sorts of West End credits over the last decade or so, but I do remember being particularly impressed with her in cabaret act The IDolls.
And that impassioned power I remember is on fine display throughout,. whether a gorgeous take on ‘With Every Breath I Take’ from City of Angels, or Céline-esque power ballads ‘Before I Fall’ and ‘As We Grow Older’. There’s a beautiful pairing with Alice Fearn on ‘When You Believe’ from The Prince of Egypt (though as ever, it’s the delicate interplay of that middle chorus rather than the epic finale that really captures the heart).
A fabulous piano opening to Stephen Schwartz’s ‘Ain’t It Good’ brings a welcome change of pace, with its choral bonus (and far outranks Pasek & Paul’s ‘Never Enough’, at least for me). And she unleashes some impressive vocal fireworks as she ventures into top 40 territory on ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and a fabulously orchestral ‘Chandelier’.
It’s the tenderness of her subtler vocal work that really enchants though, the seduction of ‘With You I’m Born Again’ with a smooth-voiced John Partirdge, the open appeal of the aching ‘Miss You Most at Christmas. Definitely worth an investigation if you’re thinking about stocking fillers (if they’re still a thing…!).
