The titular Kate is Kate Pavli, a rock singer of Greco-Australian descent resident in London. Moving on from her earlier solo career, the band Finding Kate marks a new phase, and the 12 tracks on ‘If I Fall’ are examples of accessible, melodic rock. Which means all the usual themes are covered, with Kate in the role of tortured soul, lovelorn, passionate, strong but vulnerable. The goth-tinged ‘Drowning’ has strong echoes of Evanescence, a touchstone which continues throughout the album.
The obligatory power ballad, ‘Forever’ begins with piano and builds to a string-soaked, guitar driven climax, brimming with emotion, there’s more piano on the more delicate ‘Don’t Let Go’, which drops the power and just goes for the balladry, as she adopts a more introspective tone and comes on more like Rihanna than preferred reference points like Avril Lavigne or Taylor Momsen, despite the lyrical focus on anguish and torment (‘how long have you / been fighting these demons you see / don’t lie, don’t lie / We’ll fight a war for you tonight / because your start it burned too bright’).
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The other band members are conspicuous by their absence on the cover and in the accompanying booklet, which features shots of Kate in various brooding poses, with backgrounds of clouds, sunsets and overlays of lyrics in scrawly writing that’s clearly designed as a signifier of a tortured soul. Like the songs themselves, there’s an overriding sense of this being an act pitched at the mass market in the presentation. Who wants to see some anonymous-looking guys looking surly when you can adorn the packaging with a girl in a fishnet top, who can serve as both object of desire and role model depending on your orientation? Even so, it’s not a failing in itself, but it does feel like the edge has been polished out and that the angst is too manufactured to be a hundred per cent convincing.
Finding Kate On Bandcamp
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