The fourth LP by the New Zealand singer-songwriter maintains her enigmatic oddness, this experimental folk-pop broadening and instrumental range, but also her voice, restlessly morphing into several personas across these 10 songs. Alongside at times abstract, impenetrable, introspection of her lyrics, Harding’s voice has always been distinctive, an otherworldly style that in the past has harked back to something you might expect more in medieval madrigals or lute-accompanied minstrels, but here it mischievously changes so much from song to song, she almost sounds like someone else, from the breathy ‘girliness’ of the title track or Lawn, the indefinable accent on Passion Babe, to strange languid, deeper voice to high, squeaky eccentricity on the organ-based Leathery Whip, or archaic folkiness again Staring At the Henry Moore or Bubbles. Other standouts include the opener Ennui, or the gentle, piano-led Lawn, which wears another vocal mask again. Musically, aside from the folk guitar, there also seems to be some Cate Le Bon influence seeping in, another great original and eccentric a Welsh twist. But Harding remains an entrancing artist in her own right, even if it’s almost impossible to know who she really is, this shape-shifter behind that laser-like gaze. Out on 4AD.
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