source: Gabrielle Aplin's Facebook page

I discovered English singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin around the same time I first heard of English singer-songwriter Lauren Aquilina, and to be honest, they don't sound all that different. They're both female singer-songwriters from England (duh), born in the early-to-mid 1990s. To me, the main difference between Gabrielle and Lauren is tone. Not tone of voice, necessarily, but tone of the general sound. Lauren's music focuses more on her voice and is a lot more sparse and haunting, as if she tries to tell stories through what she's not saying. Gabrielle's music is a lot more upbeat and quirky, with about as much of a focus on her voice as there is on the instruments and beat.

Gabrielle Aplin has about 3 years on Lauren Aquilina, and in some ways, it shows. Her sound is more eclectic than Lauren's, with influences that range from what sounds like country, folk, power rock, Celtic, even African music and some ever-so-slight R&B elements. The midsection of her album "English Rain" is full of moments that are distinctively English: a gloomy moodiness is present in the songs "How Do You Feel Today?", "Salvation" and "The Power of Love." But then the album picks up speed again, almost as if the album takes us through the stages of a relationship, from hesitation and joy to panic, despair, emptiness, anger and acceptance. "English Rain" tells a love story tastefully, beautifully, impeccably.