Singers with Unique Voices: Caroline Pennell/Carol Ades (The Unique Voices Club #13)

Every Friday, I write a post about singers with unique voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I'm writing on Caroline Pennell, or her stage name, Carol Ades.

The official cover art for the 2024 Late Start album

Caroline Pennell wrote the music alongside Justin Tranter for the Idina Menzel-led musical WILD: A Musical Becoming at the American Repertory Theater, one of the places in my collection of theatre freelance contacts, back in 2021. Of course, this was before I started there so I'm still a bit salty that my colleagues met her and I didn't. Because before all that she would write songs for Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Hailee Steinfeld, among others. And her cover of The White Stripes' "We're Going to Be Friends" made an appearance in the movie Wonder. And before she reintroduced herself as Carol Ades, derived from an older, wiser moniker and her middle name.

Carol Ades describes herself as "the therapist you didn't ask for," bearing honest and emotional lyrics about topics that people don't talk about out in the open except maybe with someone they trust enough to process it with. Her debut single under her new name, "I Can't Wait to Be British," describes all the insecurities many of us face - whether that's wanting to be thinner, or richer, or sound more sophisticated - and thinking that changing these will make us happier. (I will say that after spending a summer in London's West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as the child of a Brit and seeing more plays in the span of two weeks than I usually see in a year in America, I personally cannot wait to be allowed to live in the UK during these times where the arts are getting silenced.)

But I shall admit that I spent most of 2023, one of the worst years of my life for a multitude of reasons (including a toxic living situation I struggled to escape from), streaming "26" wondering how if my brain was supposed to be fully developed and I should know what I want out of life by then, why did it not feel like that. And now I have to buy my own health insurance and figure out who to vote for too? I don't even know what I want for lunch. And the single cover, in searing honesty, is my mood when I feel like lounging around my apartment braless without a care in the world because life just seems too crazy.

Carol Ades said somewhere during her time on The Voice that her 17-year-old self listened to a lot of Ellie Goulding at the time (after appropriately auditioning with "Anything Could Happen"). While her lyrics are more straightforward than Ellie Goulding's vivid imagery and metaphors, not only do both fall under the folktronica and indie folk genre, but both possess a thin soprano. But where Ellie Goulding has some kind of a grainy texture to her breathy tone, Carol sounds smoothed out with a strongly annunciated diction similar to her high speaking voice. Almost like she's having a conversation with you in song. Although she didn't think she was unique at the time. In fact, she probably still doesn't think of herself in that way. And I might get some flak for this but she definitely sounds better live than Ellie, much as I've spent many a high school art project listening to her albums.

Caroline/Carol was one of the original singers with unique voices I shared back when The Unique Voices Club was still a college radio show, so I'm happy to talk about her again in written form. Many of the listeners were a fan of her. And even though I missed Carol when she came through Boston on her first tour last fall (purchase your tickets as soon as they come on sale, kids; I'm still kicking myself for waiting till it sold out two months before), at least I can say I've been following her since before she changed her stage name. And since it's Pride Month, it's only appropriate to have a queer unique voice this week. So go listen to her, firebirds.

That's all for this week, guys! If you like The Unique Voices Club, remember to subscribe to the blog to get more of my posts directly to your inbox as soon as they publish without waiting for me to announce them on social media. You can also support the promotion of these artists through my Patreon here. Or just send a one-off gift.

Stay educated,

Alexia