by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
How do you follow up a critically acclaimed and publicly well-received release while keeping up with the quality you instantly achieved? It is a dilemma many artists face, and only a few are able to measure up. Some need a hefty release, some are able to do it later on, some never do. Yet, after her brilliant self-titled EP from 2022, New York’s June McDoom was able to jump over the sophomore hurdle with another EP, simply titled With Strings. That light and easy touch McDoom exhibited on her initial release doesn’t leave her here, with the two covers and two original songs.
It is something in McDoom’s voice and light, airy approach that carries her music here. While some artists use string arrangements to cover up some possible deficiencies, McDoom and her friend Sammy Weissberg, who helped her with the arrangements, use the strings as a complimentary element to enrich the music. The covers of Judee Sill’s “Emerald River Dance” and the traditional “Black Is The Color of My True Love’s Hair” (McDoom cites as inspiration versions by Tia Blake and Nina Simone) get another dimension with subdued strings and McDoom’s ethereal voice, both, complex songs that many other artists cannot truly muster.
At the same time, the two originals, “On My Way” and “The City” (the latter was her first single, and the former appeared on her initial EP), not only measure up to the covers but show that McDoom is a songwriter that will bring her listeners something truly great.