BIGGER ON THE INSIDE

After an «A B» (4:13) introductory influenced by the Adrien Belew period King Crimson (it is Rachel Flowers herself who says it, having composed this song immediately after listening to her idol guitarist during Cruise To the Edge 2019 in which she participated), the album continues with a gigantic bigger than life «Take Me Away» (11:47), with a complex and subtle score for large orchestra and keyboards, which shows Rachel's mastery in composing demanding but popular and imperishable symphonies. Strings, winds (wood and brass), percussion, large organs, piano, long organ bluesy solo , accompanying a guitar and a rhythmic rock sharp and percussive, the whole magnified by a sparkling production and mixing, worthy of resurrected Georges Martin or Phil Spector, wrapping while protecting it, without withering it but giving it all the necessary space, the beautiful voice of Rachel. All this does not prevent the melodic fluidity. "Take me away/ to a place far from here", she sings, and I guarantee you that Rachel takes us there, far away, far up, in a place where the colors of the sky seem purer, the sound of birds amplified, the more real life, a world that reveals itself to us as remade to new. But, wait, ? after checking the credits of the album, it turns out that Rachel Flowers was completely alone to make her record. Any sound we hear on Bigger On The Inside has been imagined, composed, performed, played (keyboards, bass, guitar), chosen, programmed, sung, mixed, produced, by Rachel, alone in her studio, Simply with high-performance equipment and good sound libraries (for orchestra and drums, hallucinating realism). But it is with Bigger On The Inside that she reveals herself as a major composer in the world of today's popular music, and also an incomparable singer (3 and a half octaves for a soft but firm voice). On the feminine side, I would venture to say that we had not known such an artistic mastery, such a profound musical vision, such a genius of composition, such an ease in interpretation, with a superhuman independence, a melodic gift at this exceptional point, such an ability to create a successful music, since Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and Emily Bezar. Rachel Flowers seems to be truly possessed by her music (you have to see how she drops everything on the final singing of «Too Much») as much as she does, in all the cells of her body, but always with benevolence and the energy of youth. Bigger On The Inside can have undeniable therapeutic virtues («Feel» and its Big Band at Rachel's fingertips, or the solar «With you» that makes you want to hug your loved ones and your neighbors), but can also send back a darker image, as on the raging «Too Much» or the grandiose «The Darkness» which sees the appearance of some heavy and metal guitars, with an impeccable guitar solo (sort of tribute to John Petrucci?). Diversity is always present (the intimate and poignant «Beautiful Dream»), the proud and fiery «This Is the Way I Am»), always nourished by influences as varied as the prog of Chris Squire and Keith Emerson, the symphonic and mixed jazz-pop created by Joe Jackson or Stevie Wonder, the science of melody made by Paul Mc Cartney, the groove of Gino Vannelli and Earth Wind And Fire, the contemporary jazz of Esperanza Spalding or Jacob Collier, the vocal prowess of Ella Fitzgerald or Maurice White, the virtuosity of Herbie Hancock and the sound research of Craig Armstrong or Peter Gabriel. And at the end of all these references, something unique appears, a perfect record of Rachel Flowers as we always dreamed of. Rarely had an album carried its name so well: bigger inside, and that's an understatement. More than an hour of fabulously lively singing and music that leave us with the pulsating heart of joyful fever consuming our arteries in a magnetic ecstasy