Diana - Step Into The Light (D&R Music Group)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, straight outta Boston I present to you Diana. This singer-songwriter has dropped a heavy bomb on the Adult Contemporary scene that should blow all of the rote and tired, cliché-ridden competition out of the way for miles around. Step Into The Light is everything a great pop album should be. It's everything a smart sounding album should be, and it's everything any addictive album should be. So just what are those qualities you may ask? Well I have your answers right here, kids.

Great Pop. Well, yes. Here we have Diana Karthas and friend Rhonda S. Boulé writing songs together like - dare I say it - a female Lennon and McCartney. Is that a first? I know that old Beatles thing gets thrown around all the time. I want to make it a point here to mention that this music does not sound Beatlesque, rather the songwriting quality is high. The attention to details wonderful, and the melodies A-1. The singing, the playing, the deeply embedded hooks, they're all right here in eleven tracks that you'll be playing over and over again.

Smart Sounding.All too often listeners get hit with albums that treat them like they're idiots and need to be walked around by some authority figure. "Oh look how deep I am," the singer will try to say to you. "I'm the grandest, you'll be singing my praises for years to come because I sang seriously to you, therefore you'll need a map into all my deepest recesses, so cerebral am I!" Bah. On the other side of the scale, the listener is often beaten with absolutely dumb sounding songs masquerading as Something Important. Just because you sing a song about welfare or religion doesn't mean you have anything interesting to add to the story. Most often you don't. But here, Karthas delivers an album that doesn't play to pretension, doesn't act holier than thou, and doesn't pretend to be great. It just simply is great. From songs of independence like "Pieces of You and I" to the triumphant and invigorating "Here in Me" to the elegant "Firelight" and the beautiful "Spirit's Dream", Karthas simply tells it like it is without getting sappy or pushy about it. She lets you enjoy the songs as they unfold.

Addictive Sounding. Yes, on top of everything else Step Into The Light is one of those albums that for all the above reasons and others not so apparent will be played time and again. Upon my first day of having this disc, I wound up playing the thing at least five times. How many albums do you get nowadays that demand that kind of play the first day you get them? I can't think of very many. Sure, you might often get an album and really dig it while you listen to it, and then have the first listen and go on to the next thing. But it's rare to get the one that you immediately start over again. Well here's one that will make you want to do that. The production is perfect, the instrumentation impeccable, bringing out everything beautifully in each of the songs. And again, the songs themselves overall are just a real achievement in melody and lyricism.

You want comparative points? Sure, I have those as well. The choruses of "Pieces of You and I" remind me of a great lost Dixie Chicks tune. It doesn't sound "country" at all, but the harmonies are there and the whole kick and attitude of the tune reminds me of the Chicks, of whom I am a big fan. Karthas' voice brings to my mind that of Lynne Canfield, whom you may recall was the voice of the excellent bands Area and The Moon Seven Times. At other times, some of these tunes remind me of the grand Katydids, led by the wonderful Susie Hug who never got their due and left behind two fantastic albums in their wake. So if the songwriting team of Boulé and Karthas is picking up those fragments and turning them into something this new and exciting - even unknowingly - it can only be a great thing for the music industry and its airwaves. People, just listen to this album and hear how excellent these songs are. Don't let Diana Karthas pass by and slip into another obscure pile of should have beens. This is just terrific music.

So what can I possibly say after all that? I'm not sure. All I do know is that Step Into The Light is easily one of the best pop albums I've heard this year. Are we talking best of 2002? Why not? In a year that's been dominated with this whole "garage" resurgence, it's been tough to actually filter out the great rock and pop acts from the ones that are merely over-hyped. You have to be on the lookout for those albums that you'll still be playing even a month from now. Well, Diana's Step Into The Light is one that I promise will withstand repeated listens and then some. It's a work that will make you feel good, comfort you, and something you'll surely like to sing along with. This one gets nothing but the highest marks from yours truly. Now stop reading this and go have a listen for yourself already.

- Jason Thompson