Detroit’s Eliza Neals serves up a confection of electrified
blues and fizzy jazz with “Breaking and Entering”. An album that is fun (‘Sugar
Daddy’), fresh (‘Southern Comfort Dreams’) and stamped with the indelible
signature of Neals’ vibrant personality. Her soulful vocals breathing life into
a record that’s topics range from self-empowerment (‘I’m the Girl’) to being
madly in love (‘You’) and beyond.
The title single; ‘Breaking and Entering’ does what great
music is supposed to, transporting you from a drive in life’s ordinary lane to riding in the extraordinary.
This is due to Neals' infectious ability to conjure road trip anthems that put
listeners on sonic cruise control with a relaxing invigoration.
Whether the ‘Windshield Wipers’ are “wiping her tears away”
or she is going on a ‘Detroit Drive’, Neals finds a clever way to draw Motor
City’s namesake into the lyrical conversation. The honor for the album’s
standout track belongs to the theatrically-inclined ‘Jekyll and a Hound’. Its
impressively addictive tune tangles with a deceptively dark lyrical narrative. The result of which is a song as brooding as it is haunting with a crackling
production that is exemplary in its unique edge.
While Neals’ sings the blues, “Breaking and Entering” is an
upbeat record that never slides into a depressive tone. It offers a hopeful
lens by which to see the varying circumstances of life and when you finish
listening, Neals' enthusiasm cannot help rubbing off.
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