Sometimes in the interest of crossover appeal or artistic tastes, musical artists blend different genres together, creating unique musical styles and sounds. Wild By Nature, Iona Leigh’s third album, eschews this principle and aims straight for a new-age sound with some mild Celtic themes thrown in. Wild By Nature is the product of Leigh’s voice and songwriting along with Medwyn Goodall’s production and multi-instrumentation. The resulting combination is entirely pleasant, and well suited for the new-age genre, but comes up short as an album on the whole.
The strongest asset here is Leigh’s voice. Intensely beautiful, Leigh sounds as emotional and soaring as Sarah McLachlan but with a slightly lower timber, more akin to Annie Lennox, though it varies a bit from song to song. The quality of her voice is well suited for her lyrics which are either poetically inspired, or straight-up adapted poetry. The opening track, “Nature’s Lament”, is an adapted form of the William Wordsworth poem, perhaps most notable for it’s repeated line of “What man has made of man.”
Leigh’s original works don’t deviate very far from the poems she draws inspiration from. On “Here and Now” Leigh sings, “Daisy chains and passing trains/Moving onward towards a new home/Winter breeze and icy trees/In the woods where I like to roam.“ Her embrace of nature and spirituality is similar to John Denver, except Leigh’s lyrics embrace a deeper connection between the two, such as “Prayer for Trees” where she sings, “You are so needed/You give us life to breathe/You are so healing/You help us when we grieve“.
Producer Medwyn Goodall, is also largely responsible for the sound of the album, as he plays all the instruments on it. Goodall’s work in the field of new-age music is exhaustive as both a musician and producer. Leigh could not have found a more experienced person to work with, though his sharp focus in the new-age genre may have been a liability as well as a benefit. Much of Wild By Nature sounds similar from song to song. Even though Goodall plays a variety of different instruments, there’s that same light percussion, gentle piano, lightly picked guitar that defines the genre from track to track.
In addition to the production, the length of the songs is an issue. As good as any song may be, if it runs too long without significant development, the length hinders the song itself. Three of the tracks border on or exceed the seven-minute mark while others consistently hit around the five to six minute range. Goodall’s arrangements have a degree of build to them, but not enough to capture the listener’s attention for this long. Further, Leigh’s lyrics can feel preachy when repeated over and over, and they often feel like they’re just filling time in very lengthy arrangements. At this point, the concept of “less is more” should take hold and the songs be trimmed down.
If the length of the songs were reduced to the three to four minute mark then the qualms of the similar sounding arrangements and the overwhelming new-age feel would be trivial. There would be less chance for the songs to sound like they were bleeding in from one to another, and Leigh’s songwriting would sound more concise and focused.
All things considered, Wild By Nature is a beautifully performed album by a stellar vocalist and equally stellar producer. Iona Leigh could easily become a household name with her breathtaking voice if her songs receive greater structure and focus.
Review by Heath Andrews
