Carla J. Easton - Work in Progress EP

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, I moved to a new house and then was waiting for the Internet to be connected. That is all sorted now, so normal service can resume. We are still outside the box for this week’s entry from Carla J. Easton. I first became aware of Carla when I happened to see her band, TeenCanteen, at the 2014 Wales Goes Pop festival. I really enjoyed their set, and so after returning home from the gig, looked up what studio material (if any) was available. At the time there was just the one release, their debut single ‘Honey’, which was released as an extremely limited-edition and long since sold out cassette, so I contented myself with purchasing the download instead. I did however pick up the sparkly glitter 7” of their follow up single, ‘You’re Still Mine’, when it was released, along with debut album Say It All with a Kiss, a couple of years later. Concurrent to her work with the band, Carla also released a solo album under the name Ette, Homemade Lemonade, before starting work on follow up LP (and the first to be released under her given name) Impossible Stuff. Before that though, she released a limited-edition cassette release (of 200) containing a handful of demos of tracks that would eventually make it on to that album, and that is what we are looking at today.

Artist: Carla J. Easton
Release: Work in Progress EP
UK Record Label: Late Night from Glasgow
UK Release Date: 26th August 2017
UK Single Releases from Album: N/A

We start strongly with ‘Lights in the Dark’ which in my opinion is one of Carla’s best, consisting of just her vocals and an accompanying piano, it really is affecting stuff, telling the tale of lost love and a broken heart.
The second track is ‘Girl from Before’ and it’s another sparse vocals/piano combination, it’s interesting to hear these embryonic versions of tracks when you’re used to hearing the more fully formed versions.
That’s followed by a track that to my knowledge hasn’t been released elsewhere, ‘All So Easy’, and it’s a really lovely song, wistful and haunting.
Fourth is ‘Never Had the Words to Say’ and this is slightly more upbeat than what has gone previously, at least musically if not lyrically.
The final track is ‘Dreamers on the Run’ and this is another favourite, Easton really has a way of conveying the angst of the songs, but in a way that isn’t whiny or self-pitying, they’re heartfelt and heart breaking in equal measures. This is a strong way to finish. 
The second side of the tape then plays the same five tracks again. A word too on the packaging, each cassette was hand sprayed (mine is mostly red on one side, and kind of pink on the reverse) and then wrapped in a photocopied information sheet, giving the release a pleasingly homemade look. So in conclusion a short, but certainly enjoyable listen to some early versions of tracks that went on to be some of the highlights on Impossible Stuff. 

You can listen to the finished versions of most of the tracks here

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