Miranda Easten – Concrete & Honey (13th Floor Album Review)

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Miranda Easten has released Concrete & Honey an album that, as the title indicates, collects some sweet sounds made possible by an artist willing to put in the hard yards.

This is the Christchurch native’s second solo album and one that finds her reuniting with her production team of Greg Haver (producer) and Scott Seabright (engineer) while also signing on Ben King and Steffany Beck.

Easten has always been a team player…her first band was Manuka Set with Vanessa Kelly and, over the years, she has worked with Greg Johnson, Delaney Davidson and members of Tiny Ruins.

Miranda’s previous album, 2021’s Behind Broken Strings, gave her some success in Australia and the US, so with a country-wide tour with Steffany Beck just wrapped, it looks like Easten has set her sights on making a bigger impression on home soil this time around.

The tour with Beck was called Saddle Up Sisters, and yes, there is a Country twang to Concrete & Honey, especially when Neil Watson adds his pedal steel guitar to tunes like Somewhere I Can Stay, View From Here and her lovely take on I Don’t Want To Talk About It, the Crazy Horse/Rod Stewart cover that closes the record.

Easten, Haver and Seabright recorded in Auckland at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studio and in Wales at the legendary Rockfield Studio where acts like Coldplay, Oasis and Queen cut their classics. Miranda notes that they used “Freddie’s piano” on Gold Rush and her cover of The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses.

Those two covers show off Miranda’s good taste but the other nine originals hold up under scrutiny as well.

Kip Moore Smile has been touted as her “Country-Pop banger” amid comparisons to Shania Twain and new single Shade Of Black draws from a deeper well, addressing anxiety and depression…Miranda has spoken about her battle with agoraphobia.

Throughout the album, Easten’s voice is smooth as satin, with the steady hand of Greg Haver’s production expertise (Manic Street Preachers/The Feelers/Devilskin) steering it to the top of the NZ charts, hopefully.

It’s been something of a journey for this “fast-rising” Kiwi singer/songwriter, one that deserves as much success as she can handle. Concrete & Honey might just be the recipe for that success.

Marty Duda

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Marty Duda
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