emilyzuzik.com - Reviews

Reviews

Village Voice Featured Review
Village Voice-Sept. 5, 2006
New York Doll Shows Strength Through Vulnerability
Emily Zuzik's You Had Me at Goodbye
by Kylen Campbell

On her sophomore effort, singer-songwriter Emily Zuzik mines the fertile soil of the breakup, from great pain, great art, right? In this case, the art is solid, but it's the artist, strong and confident, who warrants attention. The salty "Potential" delivers on it, her musicologist's ear serves the psychedelic "Segue" well, and a Beatles moment blossoms from "This Time Around." Such genre-checking flows naturally as she cuts a fun-filled zigzag through r&b, blues, pop, and rock, deploying every vocal styling and nailing every inflection, growl, and coo. This range infuses You Had Me at Goodbye's songs with the energy of a powerful voice flexing its muscles, but it's actually best when Zuzik softens. Plaintive and real, "Stand Up, Stand Out" is the winner here though the song is less glam than its companions, its quiet maturity reveals a singer with real soul.

SF Chronicle 96 Hours Feature
SF Chronicle 96 Hours Section

Delfin Vigil

Thursday, September 14, 2006

It took three bands, five years and about a million gigs in the city before Emily Zuzik figured it out.

"You know," says Zuzik with a satisfied sigh, "you can't keep playing one town and expect everything to just happen."

So when the former lead singer of Funkmobile, Sexfresh and a band that rhymes with "Chitty Chitty" Band Band returns to San Francisco for the first time in five years for a record-release party at the Make-Out Room on Friday, it'll be another night in a long journey of making music for music's sake.

It all changed when Zuzik left San Francisco for New York five years ago.

"Music has been my main thing for a long time, but until I left San Francisco, it was never with the vigor and confidence that this is what I'm going to do with the rest of my life no matter what it takes," says the underground diva, who just released her latest solo album, "You Had Me at Goodbye."

With smart, soulful and sexy songwriting, Zuzik will need the rest of her life to catch up to her own creativity, which has been in overdrive lately.

"I just love being a working musician," she says, "whether it's writing, recording, performing, thinking of stuff that could be placed in television or even joke bands -- whatever. I love it. I eat it. I breathe it."

That wasn't happening during Zuzik's last year in San Francisco, around the time of the dot-com bust. Laid off, with no work, high rent and a bit of burnout from playing weekend weddings and bar mitzvahs, she decided it was time to hit the road.

On her way to a new life in New York, Zuzik took the scenic route, making stops throughout the Southwest and Texas for impromptu gigs that each gave back with its own individual energy. When she set up camp in New York's East Village, she immediately tapped into a spirit she wasn't feeling in San Francisco.

But it was more than a case of the grass growing greener on the other side.

"In New York, it's not just the young kids who come out to see live music. There are avid fans in their 30s, 40s and 50s," says Zuzik. "I have a theory about that. People go out more in New York because they can't afford nice places to live in. It's like if you have a really small, cramped kitchen, you'd rather go out somewhere nice to eat."

San Franciscans should plan a date night out Friday, because Zuzik is preparing a feast of homecoming fun in the Make-Out Room's kitchen.

Time Out New York Magazine
Time Out NY
"Emily Zuzik's voice ranges from a sweet and alluring croon to a low growl that would charm even the most world-weary."

Performing Songwriter Magazine--Emily Zuzik "The Way It's Got to Be"
Featured DIY Pick Editor
"An accomplished songwriter and modern rocker, Emily Zuzik is well known from San Francisco to Austin to her home in NYC and most points between.

As a member of bands including Sexfresh, Shitty Shitty Band Band and Funkmobile, Zuzik established herself as an impressive vocalist and writer. With this solo effort, she proves to be an artist to be reckoned with.

Zuzik's melodies are fluid and unpredictable, and the instrumentation over which they glide ranges from the acoustic-driven mid-tempo grooves of songs like "That's the Way" and the moving closer "No More for Today" to clanking rhythms on "Season to Spend" and the notable semi-industrial track "Trippy Falls."

Zuzik mixes the urgent intensity of Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos with the easy cool of Kim Gordon, but is still her own woman and an impressive artist."

UK's Rock Pulse Magazine picks Emily Zuzik's track as fave!
Rock Pulse Magazine (review of Greatest Music You've Never Heard[Mosquito Media breast cancer benefit cd])
"There are 18 tracks on this compilation, so if I were to talk about each one in turn, I'd be here all day. All I have to say is that after Torpedo Pilots there are 11 more brilliant tracks, my favourite of all being 'That's the Way' by Emily Zuzik. She has a sweet voice and comes across as being cool and confident, which makes the song instantly attractive to Women. As well as this, the music is catchy, the lyrics are great, and song has an overall good-time feel to it. "

Collected Sounds: A Guide to Women in Music
Editor
"Emily's deep, sultry voice is a perfect match for the gutsy, rock-bluesy feel of the music. She growls, whispers and shouts...all very well....If you're looking for a CD with some diversity that includes tinges of rock, pop, trip-hop, and folk then Emily Zuzik is your ticket."

ICON Magazine, issue 4
Review of The Way It's Got to Be

"On the overly accomplished Emily Zuzik's latest album, The Way It's Got to Be, Zuzik articulately combines smooth jazz with soulful rock. Zuzik's voice is unique; it's deep, sexy, and innate. The album is so affecting, as soon as you hit play on your CD player, you're compelled to listen to every track from start to finish--in its entirety. Her lyrics are contagious, they're filled with realism. However, her songs, while filled with catchy hooks and having the potential for commercial play, seem to have been written to stay within her indie roots, a notable claim to fame."