Shepherd’s Bush Empire, LondonA huge red heart hangs at the back of the stage – an apt symbol for a singer who concentrates on just one subject: “dudes”, and their failure to giveback her like. An hour with Christina Perri at her first London headlining exhibit is like sitting in a teenager’s bedroom as she unburdens herself; song after mournful song rolls outside, along with tales about the unrequited crushes that inspired them. On the plus side, the 25-year-ancient Pennsylvanian comes with a plaintive, supple singing voice that makes listening a pleasure; on the other palm, should anyone over 16 be confessing to a paying crowd that the track The Lonely was written since, “I didn’t desire to be alone, so I chose I was dating loneliness, and he was my boyfriend”?It feels incorrect to be also dense on her, though, since if you believe the backstory, Perri has only been doing this professionally for 18 months. One day, apparently, she was waitressing in Los Angeles and posting her songs on YouTube; the following, the ballad Jar of Hearts was played on the US talent exhibit So You Reckon You Can Dance, and the marks that had previously ignored her were competing to sign her. Both the single and her album, lovestrong, went top 10 in the US and UK.Tonight, she’s a composite of Alanis Morissette and Paramore’s Hayley Williams, with the angst tempered by a spoonful of Zooey Deschanel-style kookiness. No affair how self-absorbed the song – and she throws herself into each, smacking a guitar or crashing outside the chords on piano – she finishes every one by handing outside flowers and giggling. She much says: “Wow, this is so rad!” The music, though, is less rad, with earnest balladry and MTV rock-outs the order of the day. Distinct tunes manage to transcend the teenage-diary lyrics: Crazy incorporates jolly mariachi, and Jar of Hearts is a complete-blown giveback to the huge-haired music of the 1980s.Conversely, Sad Song, performed sitting on the stage’s edge, generates the thought that she really should male up. “Today I’m gonna inscribe a sad song/ I’m gonna constitute it really extended,” she sighs, to empathetic cheers from young fans. There’s clearly an audience for the lovelorn Perri, so for the sake of her career, she’d bigger not meet Mr Fair.Rating: 3/5Pop and rockCaroline Sullivanguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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