Bitter Twisted Wrong - Review

A remarkable debut album that features 12 original songs about relationships with the tone set by the album's title. Ms Tomlin plays acoustic guitar and piano and has a powerful, mature vocal style which she employs on her spiky, emotional and very personal lyrics.

Opening track 'Your Demise' starts with a furious strummed acoustic guitar lick and then kicks in with funky wah-wah guitar as Chrystina tells of a tortured
relationship gone sour.

Musical assistance (lots of it) is provided by Phillip Goss who plays electric, acoustic and classical giutars, drums, bass and keyboards. 'Stand Corrected' opens with a heavy guitar riff worthy of Purple or even Zep in their heyday as Ms Tomlin sets her powerful vocals against the choppy, almost brutal rhythm.

'No More' has a more acoustic folky feel to it as Chrystina claims " You can't hurt me no more" , Title track 'Bitter Twisted Wrong' opens gently enough and then adds layers of backing vocals and multi-tracked droning guitars as another tale unfolds.

'Lonely Tonight' is a ballad featuring a lilting piano refrain and the vocals sound for all the world like Kate Bush - amazing! The arrangements and production are varied but always provide a suitable backdrop for the tales of angst and bare emotions that they are framing.

This lady can give some of her better known contemporaries a run for their
money in the songwriting and vocal stakes. 'Never Ever' is a soul-drenched song with solo piano accompaniment and impassioned vocals whilst closing track 'Poison' is a sturdy slab of 60's R&B which makes me think that Chyrstina Tomlin has listened to plenty of Stax/Motown/Atlantic and then put her own stamp on it.

If this lady can put together a live show based on this work and produce more albums of this quality then she will surely go far.


Dave Drury