Wish I Could Forget You – Brooke Turner (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Even though it often seems as if music just happens, the result of a lucky break or stumbling across the right song for the right market, in the modern world, more than ever there is a lot more to it than that. Artists today have to juggle any number of skills, both musical and otherwise and knowing that she wanted to build a music career for herself, since the age of 8 this young Canadian has gathered the skills needed, learning piano and guitar and studying all aspects of music. After becoming fascinated with discovering the magic ingredients which go to make a hit record she veered away from her classical roots towards a pop path, one that now as a twenty year old she is having success with.

Pop music also has to reflect its audience and debut single Wish I Could Forget You does exactly that, a young girl reflecting on the highs and lows of first loves. As the title suggests it is themed on that timeless scenario of being attracted to someone so strongly that even after things don’t work out, you still can’t for get them, are still drawn to them even though you know that you are heading for a sharp emotional fall.  Ahh, young love.

But even if the message doesn’t make quite the same impact on us aged and jaded listeners, it is still a pristine piece of pure pop built of vibrant dance floor beats and infectious grooves. I would go as far as to say that Ms. Turner is possibly the perfect young pop product for the moment. She effortlessly combines youth and the wide-eyed learning curve of her age with slick and vibrant, dance driven pop grooves, resulting in something that is like musical mana for the pop dollar but never compromises the deft creation of her music. This may be pop but throw-away it aint!

Forget the gimmicks, the marketing tricks, the style over substance that many of her rivals employ to hide the fact that they don’t have a particularly strong track, this girl bases her songs on one thing. Confidence. The beats drive hard, the grooves look you in the eye, challenging you not to dance…by the chorus you will be dancing  anyway so you might as well just get on with it from the start… and the vocals land sweetly, emotively and powerfully and with intent.

Brooke Turner my be a modern artist but she is also a back to basics girl, she has figured out the key factors that make pop music so potent and used that knowledge to deliver perfect, state of the art, music of the moment, dance floor, future pop classics. Sometimes the simplest of plans reap the greatest results and this approach of just getting the core ideas locked down so that the rest will follow, is working perfectly for her and I think Brooke Turner is a name which will soon be a fixture in the modern music landscape.