You’re probably going to see many more posts about Terra Naomi in the upcoming months seeing as how she is back in Los Angeles and back in my regular concert rotation. If you don’t know who she is, Terra won the 2006 YouTube Award in the music category for her song “Say Its Possible” . In 2007, she left Los Angeles to develop her career in London. She just got back and has booked a 3 gigs in August at Hotel Cafe to debut and test out new material for her upcoming record.

Terra only played four of her usual songs and a slew of “new” tracks. “Suffer For Her Sins” is a track that Terra debuted to YouTube users a few months ago. She closed her set with a cover of Sublime’s “Santeria”, another track that Terra’s YouTube audience may have seen when she was releasing a bunch of covers.

The new songs take Terra back to the roots of her first record and the songs are infused with blues and jazz. I think out of all the songs she played that night, “Suffer For Her Sins” was the most drastic departure in terms of melody and style. Personally, the track has never hooked me in and overall i think it sounds odd. On the other hand, the new version of “Jenny” is stripped down and gone is the overuse of instrumentation and production. Her melodies are the same but the accompanying music fits the song making it so much better than the original.

“What We Do” was played solo and sounds like a missing track off her debut album with trailing vocals and minimal chord changes.
“Everybody Knows” was probably my favorite new song of the night with a beautiful melody structure and great chorus. I don’t quite remember how it goes but it could be to the new record what “new song” was to Under The Influence in terms of the ballad type confession song (just listen to the original solo version). Terra closed off her set with “Santeria” and got the audience singing along. It seemed like they enjoyed a song that was familiar to them. “The Vicodin Song” was chosen by the crowd for the encore. The new version of “Up Here” has lost that ‘umph’ and tinge of feistiness and has cooled to a bluesy pensive ballad. Gone also is her usual Yamaha keyboard that she used to play and in its place is a Nord Electro 2 keyboard. I guess a change in style also calls for a change in instruments.

I can see how the new songs will be quite a change for the listeners that are used to the songs off of Under The Influence. But, i really liked the new stuff. It actually sounds like Terra and not some artificial and overproduced version. Its about time around her vocals take center stage again. But most importantly, ITS GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK TERRA! (im more ways than one).

Official Set List:

Bad Time To Fall In Love
Happy Story
Suffer For Her Sins
Say It’s Possible
What We Do (solo)
Up Here
Everybody Knows (solo)
Jenny
Santeria (Sublime cover)
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The Vicodin Song (solo)

*songs in bold are completely new and haven’t been debuted on YouTube or at the London shows