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Aldous Harding, the project of New Zealand's singer-songwriter Hannah Topp,
debuted with an album
of melancholy folk songs, Aldous Harding (2014),
produced by John Parish (who produced several PJ Harvey albums).
It's an album in the style of the 1960s folk revival.
In fact, the medieval Celtic bard-influenced Stop Your Tears
and the waltzing lullaby Merriweather evoke
Donovan and
Sandy Denny
(the latter with a haunting ending shrouded in a funeral choir).
The most upbeat moment is Hunter,
which is almost a lively folk dance for guitar and violin.
Her fragile voice seems to fly in the wind in No Peace
and becomes a mere humming in a ghostly theremin breeze in
Two Bitten Hands.
On the other hand, Titus Groan is Joni Mitchell fronting a slightly drunk bluegrass band and a synth from outer space.
The closing songs, the
six-minute Small Bones of Courage
and Titus Alone, rely exclusively on the words,
which makes for an ardous listening.
Party (4AD, 2017) is a more extroverted work.
It even begins in the mode of
danceable folktronica with Blend, that glides over a neurotic digital beat.
She feels more comfortable with her own voice, spanning different tones within
the same song, like Imagining My Man, where she both
croons like a madwoman and digresses in a colloquial tone
before the coda of a mournful saxophone fanfare; and
Party is both a slow childish plea and a lonely sorrowful lullaby.
Her voice shouts vibrant and almost defiant in Horizon over a shy piano accompaniment.
Living the Classics, on the other hand, evokes a
mildly psychedelic Nick Drake,
and
What If Birds Aren't Singing They're Screaming is a
jazzy soulful ballad over a piano carillon.
Designer (4AD, 2019) is a
more melodic collection, reminiscent of British bedroom pop of the 1980s
with a touch of country-pop of the 1970s,
which generally makes it a lot more predictable, like background lounge music
(Fixture Picture, Zoo Eyes).
Designer even winks at the most bombastic synth-pop,
and Weight of the Planets is an update of
Sade's
sensual soul ballads.
The solemn chamber pop of The Barrel
and the fatalistic nocturnal
six-minute piano ballad Damn is the best this new style can deliver.
Warm Chris (2022) is a collection of
mediocre folk-pop ditties, from the
more or less martial Fever to the casual and whispered
Staring at the Henry Moore.
(Copyright © 2019 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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