Sienna Spiro's highly anticipated debut album, Visitor, has arrived amid significant hype, but the British singer fails to live up to her potential, delivering a merely competent collection of piano ballads and torch songs. Despite her already huge popularity, the album lacks the vocal agility and lyrical subtlety needed to justify comparisons to Adele.
A Post 'Die With a Smile' World
The music landscape has shifted since Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' 2024 megahit 'Die With a Smile,' which has nearly 4 billion streams on Spotify alone. Audiences crave traditionalist AM radio ballads, and Sienna Spiro fits the bill with her ultra-traditionalist sound. Her background adds to the allure: her father, Glenn Spiro, is a famed Hatton Garden jeweller, and her mother, Arabella, is a high society figure who reportedly mixed with royalty.
Breakthrough and Early Success
Spiro broke through on TikTok, first hitting the UK singles chart in 2024 and subsequently achieving three US Hot 100 hits. Her debut album, however, is a pastiche of Whitney-style piano ballads sung with a grittier and less agile voice. The lyrical content often focuses on stubbornness, painting Spiro as a charming fighter who refuses to let an ex get away. This approach works on tracks like 'Die on This Hill,' which is soaring and suffused with cathartic conviction, but on songs like 'We're Not in Love' and 'Great Expectation,' it becomes exhausting.
Intermittent Signs of Greatness
Spiro's other mode involves full-band torch songs that show intermittent signs of greatness. 'This Is My House,' produced by soul revivalist Leon Michels, hints at a different, more compelling album. It is an unabashed highlight, though it includes an unearned sample of civil rights legend Nikki Giovanni. In contrast, 'He's Not My Baby, I'm His' is deeply misguided. Written about a relationship with a man 'twice my age,' the vintage-styled track struggles with bad-taste lyrics such as 'No one feels quite as seen as when a child gets chosen.'
Excess and Missed Potential
Excess is a common theme across Visitor. A little more subtlety could make Spiro's 'new Adele' tag stick, but as it stands, the album is a competent debut that fails to live up to its promise. According to the review, Spiro's vocal limitations and lyrical missteps prevent her from achieving the greatness hinted at in her best moments.
