After a string of singles such as Limbo and A Thing You Call Joy, the Irish indie poet’s debut album emboldens her style of strikingly esoteric lines and images backed a mix of guitar, drums and electronica, with a distinctively lingering talking/semi-sung delivery. As much a visual artist as poet, she can come across as equally inventive and pretentious, particularly with that style of lingering on certain words and syllables for no apparent purpose but for stylisation, but nevertheless it makes for something strangely beguiling, and her lyrics seem to be filled with non-narrative one-liners. Musical collaborators Julian Hanson and Oscar Robertson bring a fascinating soundtrack to the words, at times indie rock at other times dancefloor electronica, with O’Brien’s vocals variously interweaving with and against the tide of the music. Standouts include Holy Country, with the pronouncement that “the giants of time are turning tunes”, End of Days (“My heart is breaking open”), There Are Good Times Coming, the energetic and more indie rock GIRLKIND, and the dancier Like Culture, and Spare My Size, Me. A fascinatingly oddball debut, highly original, and another coup for producer Dan Carey. Out on Chess Club.
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