The enigmatic New Zealand artist returns with her fifth album, a blend of folk and experimental rock packed with gnomic lyrics and experimental musical blends, her beguiling presence as deliciously strange as ever in another release co-produced with long-time collaborator John Parish. There’s an intriguing mix of sounds here, all recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, with additional playing on pedal steel by Joe Harvey-Whyte; harpist Mali Llywelyn; synth artist Thomas Poli; drummer Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear); and Huw Evans (H. Hawkline), across bass, vocals, acoustic/electric guitar, and organ. But it is Harding’s wonderful oddness that abides, not merely with her eccentricity, non-sequitur-rich lyrics which seem to seep from the subconscious, but also a shapeshifting of vocal timbres, as noticeable on this record as when she plays live, also physically moving in a way that also seems unusually wired. . On the bluesy-country-rock final track Coats alone, for example, her vocal delivery slips at the signal of a chord change, between the breathy and girly, to country drawl, to high, delicate and ghostly, and includes the blue women as illustrated on the album artwork. On the understated, rhythmic, rather beautiful drumming and brushing harp of What Am I Gonna Do, her voice is very deep, before the title phrase rises it up. Meanwhile there are all kinds of other strange delights across the 10 tracks. Who else might open their album, with I Ate The Most? and lyrics such as: “I'm not afraid like you’re not gay / And you're not old, like I'm on the spectrum / Everyday look up in my body / There’s heavy and heavier / I was nine when I left my body/ The Silver Chair and Rilian/ No regrets, just things that'll haunt me / Maybe I'll bury them”( with reference to the CS Lewis novels). Or the sensually strange dream-like title track, with: “I will have it in now, illusion / Where'd you go? / Mommy said my inception was like eating a pearl/ I blew all glass out the home / Reflections steal my mind.” One Stop has a beautiful melody, and like much of the album is musically composed and produced with concision and precision. Harding and Evans duet on Venus in the Zinnia like a surreal online Zoom conversation. Wonderfully odd, as ever, and very out-there, as well as beautifully crafted. Out on 4AD.
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