Katrina Stone – Never Wanna Grow Up

Album Review of Katrina Stone: Never Wanna Grow Up

Blank CD; photo by Geoff Wilbur

Energetic, cheerful, catchy pop music. Katrina Stone has a fun voice, broad range, and songwriting skill that results in a cheerful disc of enjoyable pop melodies, fast and slow, that perhaps reminds me best of Lisa Miskovsky… but with a faster median tempo.

On her fifth full-length album, Never Wanna Grow Up, Katrina kicks things off with “Hands & Hearts,” an infectiously hooky number that is the musical equivalent of skipping down the street. She stretches out the occasional note to show her vocal chops, but this is all about getting a smile upon her listener’s face at the pace of a brisk walk.

A similarly fun uptempo number, title track “Never Wanna Grow Up” builds as it adds instruments while never letting go of its happy energy, while “Your Favorite Song” is another memorably uptempo, cheery tune whose sometimes lush music bed and incessantly optimistic nature are terminally smile-inducing.

On the softer side, the album’s second track “Forever Be (My Always)” is a sweet, romantic number whose singalong chorus embeds itself easily into the listener’s memory. And Katrina’s duet with Benj Heard, “Together Forever,” is a smooth and light sway-along crooner, like a romantic sunset at the beach.

Also notable, though I can’t place the element that makes it so memorable, mid-tempo “Little White House” is a perfect blend of tempo, upward-rising musical runs, and jazzy delivery that work well together.

Such a deep bench on this album, there are several more tracks that grab my attention. I love the sweet, soaring, emotional vocals in “Bombs Away,” the edgy-yet-playful overtones in “Siren,” and the return-to-trademark, uptempo, energetic, poppiness of “Beautiful Things.”

The whole disc shows off Katrina’s sweet, strong, powerful vocals and pop sensibility. There are potential hits galore, and it’s a great glimpse into a talented singer who’s just waiting for the right song to catch the right radio programmer/soundtrack-compiler/music industry executive at the right time. In the interim, she’s producing catchy, fun, tightly-performed songs we can all enjoy.

As I finish this review, I see the album is not currently available as a name-your-price download at NoiseTrade, and I can’t find another location where you can purchase it at the moment, but I’ll add it here with a link when I do. So keep your eyes open for it (perhaps its availability will reappear), and check out some of Katrina’s other music. But definitely keep an eye out for Never Wanna Grow Up; if you can get your hands on a copy and you enjoy pop music, it’s sure to become a staple on your playlist.