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Taylor Mills
"LullaGoodbye" delivers Mills' fantastic vocal range and stunning vibrato
Taylor Mills
“LullaGoodbye”
Aqua Pulse Records
Taylor Mills’ vocal range and style are fantastic, and she has a real vibrato, which is getting rare nowadays. Basically, Mills is the best female singer that I’ve reviewed so far.
Mills has a vocal style that is original and all her own. It’s good to hear a singer who doesn’t have to scream the vocals. That’s one thing that’s prevalent in today’s music, but not on this CD.
The song, “Center of your Heart” starts things off. You can imagine hearing this song played in the background on “Gilmore Girls” when Rory is asking her mom for more money for college, and it could easily be a top 40 hit.
The song “Anything” has a slight Hendrix-y vibe. I dig it because I’m the world’s biggest Jimi Hendrix fan, and that makes this my favorite song on the CD. I like the unique choice of chords, also. This could be another hit song.
The song “Raven” finishes my picks for the standout tracks on Mills’ “LullaGoodbye” CD. This is the kind of music that they should be playing on the radio instead of the usual corporate stuff that has no substance.
I would say that Mills’ “LullaGoodbye” is the product of a rising star and we will hear her vocal style and music on mainstream radio very soon. “LullaGoodbye” is a breath of fresh air in a stagnant music scene. - Metro Spirit - Augusta, GA
This may be the debut album of Taylor Mills, but she's no stranger to the music world. She has performed with a long list of artists and, since 1999, has toured as a back-up singer for Beach Boys founder, Brian Wilson. But, on Lullagoodbye, center stage belongs to Mills, who gets a chance to show off her strong but silky voice - with special guest stars Wilson and Tommy Shaw of Styx. From the soulful "Anything" through the off beat "Raven" to the power of "Cradle Me", Mills stretches her exceptional pipes and takes listeners on a journey through the highs and lows of life. - Austin Monthly - June 2007
Taylor Mills is best known as the striking blonde vocalist in the Brian Wilson Band, and the only female member of that brilliant ensemble.
Her first solo outing was produced by her husband Todd Sucherman, and features songs written or co-written by her Wilson bandmate Scott Bennett. There are guest appearances by Brian Wilson and Tommy Shaw of Styx.
The album's centerpiece is the powerful recovery ballad, "Hello Sun." Mills' powerful voice is refreshingly free of the histrionics we've come to expect from today's pop stars. The album recalls an earlier era when vocalists like Pat Benatar and Linda Ronstadt ruled the charts. Other standouts include the heartbreaking closer, "Wish Me Well".
It has taken a long time for Taylor Mills to stand in the spotlight alone. She clearly deserves her time there.
In A Word: Heartfelt
by Ken Shane - Aquarian Weekly - reviewed by Ken Shane
Speaking of Brian Wilson, the bruised but rejuvenated godhead lends guest vocals to two tracks from the debut solo album by his protege, Taylor Mills, namely LULLAGOODBYE (Aqua Pulse Records).
Those of us who have been following Brian Wilson's artistic renaissance of recent years know Taylor well from the buoyantly precise vocals she has contributed to his stage shows and the SMILE project, and if further proof of her capabilities were needed, it should only be pointed out that she has also shared stages with Neil Young, Billy Joel, Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Her debut album is a lucious blend of superior sunshine pop/rock with occasional catch-in-the-throat country inflections, sung with real conviction and bell-like clarity. A class act, for sure.
by Marco Rossi - Dorset Echo (UK) June 1, 2007
After years of providing able background vocals to stars like Billy Joel, Elton John and her mentor, Brian Wilson, Taylor Mills is finally striking out on her own. With "LULLAGOODBYE," she makes an auspicious debut.
Much of her success lies in her sultry, passionate voice that's both powerful and intimate. It's obvious Mills could sing to heights beyond what's necessary, but her talent also is in the fact that she tempers any impulse to overdo it. She also captures a range of emotions, from loss in the haunting and beautiful "Hello Sun" to the liberation of "Consolation Prize, " which features a gauzy drawl of music that shows a feisty side.
Speaking of which, the songs are good too. Thanks to co-writers, including Mills' husband, Styx drummer Todd Sucherman and Scott Bennett, a member of Wilson's band, "Lullagoodbye" is far from being a generic offal proliferated by so many celebrities-cum-pop princess wannabes. Don't ever lump Mills with them.
by Wade Coggeshall (June 5, 2007) - Nuvo Newsweekly in Indianapolis, IN
Discography
Lullagoodbye - Taylor Mills (Indie release - May 2007)
Photos
Bio
“Taylor Mills sings like an angel.” – Brian Wilson
“Taylor Mills is a gorgeous girl with a gorgeous voice.” – Roger Daltrey
You’ve probably already heard the unforgettable voice of Taylor Mills. You might have seen her too: a striking blonde not easily overlooked, even among celebrities and superstars.
And now, with her solo debut Lullagoodbye, you’ll be able at last to attach her name to her sound and charisma.
For the past few years, Mills has traveled with Brian Wilson, recording on his Grammy-winning epic SMiLE project and performing with him at venues that have ranged from Buckingham Palace to Glastonbury Festival to the Berlin stage for Live Aid 2. No matter where they’ve gone, she has been easy to pick out, as the only female member of his ensemble.
She’s performed as well with Billy Joel and shared the stage with the likes of Elton John, John Legend, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Sir Paul McCartney. In this heady company she is no stranger, known for her powerful yet disciplined vocals and pulse-quickening presence.
Yet her moment has come to rise beyond these starry circles and shine in the wider world. Lullagoodbye is her ticket to the kind of fame she has long deserved – and your introduction to an artist whose music makes a difference.
The liquid, silvery imagery of “Raven” (sweetened by harmonies from Brian Wilson, one of his two appearances on the album), the irresistible chorus hook on “Genie in the Bottle” (featuring another all-star guest shot, from Tommy Shaw of Styx), the intriguing arrangement and imagery of “Keep the Saints from Leaving,” showcasing Taylor’s ability to cover every corner of vocal dynamics and lyrical imagery …
On every track, in fact, Lullagoodbye is a triumph for a seasoned newcomer and a stunning introduction to one of the best-kept secrets in music today.
It’s also not what you would expect at all to hear from a Midwestern girl with cheerleading, dance, clear-minded ambition, and a golden voice mingling among her roots.
Raised in Des Moines, the daughter of loving but strict Baptist parents, Taylor developed her taste for melody as a child. Her listening leaned toward pop and R&B, from the Carpenters to Roberta Flack – singers who tempered technique with personal shades of soul.
Taylor knew from the start that she wanted to pursue just one goal: to bring her talent for singing to its fullest possible flower. And so, as quickly as possible after high school, she packed up and headed to the nearest big city that seemed to offer a way to chase that dream.
She arrived in Chicago, knowing no one but made connections quickly. Fresh from Iowa, she took her place in a 17 piece band among four more experienced backup singers, all of them grounded in black gospel and R&B. "I listened like crazy and stole everything I heard from them," Taylor remembers, laughing. This lead to gigs around the city with other bands including the award-winning jazz saxophonist, Steve Cole, whose Atlantic Records debut was number one on the jazz charts.
What Taylor learned set her up for the biggest break of her career. When Cole’s drummer, Todd Sucherman, heard that Brian Wilson was looking to hire a female singer for his touring band – specifically, Sucherman remembers, “someone who was pretty and could singer her butt off” – he knew that Taylor was the perfect fit.
That’s all it took to bring her to Wilson’s home outside of Chicago for an audition. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she says. “Even though I knew the ‘beachier’ stuff he’d done with the Beach Boys, I wasn’t at all aware of Pet Sounds, SMiLE, or any of the really great stuff that he’d created over the years.”
And so, while she might have expected to hear “Surfer Girl” coming over her headphones, she was asked instead to sing along to “Surf’s Up,” one of the most enigmatic, difficult, and gorgeous works in Wilson’s repertoire. “I’d never heard the song in my life,” she says, “but they let me take a few minutes to listen to it. I memorized what I heard and sang my part, and the music director was like, ‘Yeah, I think we want you.’”
Her professional association with Wilson endures to this day. So do her personal ties to Sucherman, now her husband. Eventually, once she had established herself with Wilson, they began working together on her solo album. Progress was admittedly slow, as they began their lives together, moved first to Los Angeles and more recently to Austin, and juggled their schedules, with Taylor often on the road with Wilson and Sucherman behind the drums with Styx.
Over time, though, they assembled the material, most of it written or co-written by Scott Bennett, also a member of Wilson’s band. (Three tracks were written or co-written by Nicholas Markos, a childhood friend of Sucherman’s and a member of the group Bee; the last one, the wistfully romantic “Wish Me Well,” is a rarity from the Blue Nile’s catalog.) Sucherman recorded the drum parts; Bennett handle
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