IN HER BED...
review byIsa Fiorentini, originally published in the Feb. 2001 issue (number 196) of BABILONIA, Italy's gay and Lesbian monthly

Interview over, Erika's in a bit of a rush; a big Christmas dinner beckons, though, like the rest of us, she's not too enthusiastic about it... but she doesn't forget to bid us all an affectionate farewell.
We'd like to say a few more words about this fine CD, which, though a debut album, is a product of excellent quality, thanks to the wonderful musicians (15 of them plus Erika!), the high level of songwriting and splendid lyrics. We find the sound-quality frankly stunning, and, naturally, throughout there's Erika's lovely, powerful voice, another indisputable strong-point for this CD.
All told, the work of a seasoned pro rather than that of a debuttante, 69 minutes of refined music performed with deep feeling.

YOU WERE MINE opens with high energy, Erika's voice weaving perfectly over the rhythm section, and she wins us over right away with the tormented refrain: "...for a while you were mine and I didn't know that I could lose you...", winding up with a killer guitar solo the likes of which one just doesn't hear these days.

The atmosphere of YEARS evokes Nordic ballads "...I saw the years running over, feelings following each other, things I won't believe in..."

WHERE I AM NOW is a slow track with an elegant string section "...where I am now I hear churchbells toll, I lie on the sofa, my feet on the wall, and I wonder if I can do more and better than this..."

WHILE SHE WAS SPEAKING is one of the most moving tracks, starting gently and building up gradually, inexorably pulling us along "...the sun was slowly going down, I saw her smiling for a while, the sun went amber in her eyes, I took no time to think twice..."

IN MY BED, the title track, gives Erika the chance to flaunt her exquisitely expressive vocality to the full, it's a candidate for the charts, but, then, so are many others on this record "...it always takes me high to see you in my bed, it almost makes me fly to see you in my bed, it is the sweetest sight to see you in my bed..."

THE ONE, for its elegance, brings to mind the best female American singersongwriters "...and among all the people I'll love, all the flesh and blood, all the tears I'll shed, you'll always be the one who got the whole of me..."

HELPLESS CHILD is another gentle, delicate track, just guitar, piano and strings, the chorus is one of those instantly singable ones that stick in the mind "...you sometimes feel like a helpless child... no use in being well advised, "go on your way, swallow your pride...", the sun is mean, we're all lost in pain..."

One of our favorites tracks is the next one, a real treasure:
STRANGER IN MARSEILLE, tough but captivating, words a perfect match for the acid-logged music, background noises and voices recorded in France "...all alone, a stranger in Marseille, brilliant sun, morning très jolie, the wind of centuries, all alone, a stranger in Marseille, talking 'bout what you want to hear, I didn't want to flee..." This piece strikes us as being very like Erika herself and we note also how precious and convincing her musical talents are.

SEA, the following track, is a hypnotic, sinuous piece "...sea, well something is oppressing me, I think that I could face your storm much better than this nonsense daily war..."

But the song Erika loves best, as she confessed earlier, is the next: NO BIRDS FLYING, another enchanting ballad; probably this is the reason she sings it with such consummate mastery "...my awareness to your unconsciousness, my health to your illness, my youth to your grayness, and my love..."

NIGHT IN VENICE is a snappy track, a joyful ring-around-the-roses, with boistrous mandolins and oboes accompanying the vocal "...in this night in Venice that lets you know yourself much better than you've ever done, I'm thinking 'bout this night in Venice, why do you turn your back on memories and on fireworks?..."

RUNNING has, instead, a melancholy vein that lets us comprehend just how much ground Erika can and does cover in her composing and interpreting "...my memories are not bitter, they're realistic, all that I wanted then was hearing her call me "her clown", all the strength and positivity, my eighteens, my eager heart and body..."

IF I HAD COME BEFORE, another classy, affecting selection "...and how could I ignore that it's over, and I don't know how and I don't... if I had come before, but it's late, it's late, it is too late..."

FAIRY TALES, another classic ballad, exalts the potency of Erika's voice "...and if fate brought me here I'll just live it up, and the air that I breathe, the paths that I trod, there was a time when I thought I'd leave it all behind, did I leave it all behind?..."

And here comes, finally, what for us is the masterpiece of the whole album, the magnificent SEEING THE MIST DISSOLVING, music murky and harsh, desperate vocal "...I'm nothing but a drifter, well I know exactly where I'm going, while you spend your life a-diggin', nobody'll find you in your burrow of predetermination, of skillfully forethought actions and constant keeping out distractions... perverted, a corruptor with socially incorrect partners, cosmopolite adorer, hidden beauty extrapolator, I'll always stay a stranger, I'll always be a mild danger...", a piece we recommend giving a listen to.

HAVE ME FOR FREE closes the CD, a song that once more echoes the folk/rock of America's most celebrated woman singersongwriters "...you'd be a fool to want my every day, I got moods and views for which you'd surely be unprepared, I'm not a shallow, quiet lake you can swim in, I'd only make you mad..."

Erika: so vivacious and spirited when conversing, so thoughtful and dedicated when composing, so profound and poetic when writing; rarely have we heard so completely fulfilling an album coming from a new artist and we're sure that Erika will obtain and long preserve her deserved and pondered success.