Sarah Potenza - 'Road To Rome' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. I Work for Me

2. Dickerson And Queen

3. Who Do I Think I Am

4. Diamond

5. Earthquake

6. Worthy

7. I Believe

8. Keep On Holdin'

9. Happiness

10. Road To Rome

What a voice!

There is an attitude and agenda to this album, Sarah isn’t messing about, she has points she wants to make and she’s going to make them although it does make the album feel a bit preachy at times.

I did wonder at times if this was an album of songs or a cry to be taken seriously as an artist. It feels like there is a lot of pent up frustration coming out. I don’t know Sarah’s back story (I deliberately didn’t read it before reviewing this album) but it feels like she wants people to take her seriously and to realise she is a strong powerful woman with a voice to be listened to.

With a voice this good the need to sing about how good she is becomes slightly redundant.

My only concern is I’m not convinced some of the material is as good as the voice. There is no standout song that I can hear as her signature song. There is nothing wrong with any of the songs, they are all perfectly good songs. I just didn’t hear that killer tune that will hook people in. Where is the ‘say a little prayer’ or ‘son of a preacher man’? I’ve chosen those songs as references deliberately, Sarah has that quality of voice! I hope I’m wrong because a voice this good deserves to be heard by as many people as possible and deserves to have the best material.

The best songs for me are ‘Earthquake’, there is something about it that is vulnerable and yet strong, ‘I Believe’, a quality song, it could just be what she needs to break her out into the big time and ‘Keep On Holding’ which is the closest Sarah comes to a killer song.

There seems to be a default need to swear in some of the songs that feels like it detracts from the song rather than adds to it. Did Aretha need to swear to get her point across? Did Dusty? Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a prude but for me the swearing feels superfluous and unnecessary. It works in a couple of the songs quite well but in others it just jars.

In summary, this is an album by someone with a tremendous voice who could, with the right material, be one of the voices of a generation. This album isn’t quite there for me but its so, so close!