Kitty La Roar’s new album, Valentine’s Eve, is both melancholic and innovative.

Accompanied by the talented Ed Jones on tenor sax and the exuberant Nick Shankland on piano, Kitty offers the listeners nine tracks totalling just under fifty minutes - but these are pure quality minutes.

Standards like I’m In The Mood For Love are treated ever so gently, her vocal adding to the forlorn sentiment.

Kitty’s soft singing and delivery is one that could hypnotise a snake to the ground! One of the standouts is Last Year’s Valentine, composed by Shankland, which is a delightful ballad. Another one of his works on the album, Seventh Heaven, is quite different, the piano flowing, Jones's sax tenderly following Kitty’s voice.

I Only Have Eyes For You is another great rendition, a song that has been covered many a times, but here, through Kitty’s voice, is rendered even more fragile. I particularly loved the way the sax and the piano complement each other on this track. An elegant performance.

Love songs can be difficult to depict, and can come across sterile and futile, but on Valentine’s Eve, the trio combine to move and stir so many emotions. It works!