I’m not one to froth as a rule, but then I don’t often hear records that make my skin prickle within the course of the first few bars. With rolling percussion and slow-burning guitars simmering under on opener ‘Voices’, I find I’m instantly hooked.
Interweaving guitar motifs that allude to goth, post-punk and shoegaze (think Cure, Siouxsie), underpinned by a thudding bass forge a dreamy yet driving swirl of sound on ‘The Promise’, and they sustain both the momentum and the interest through to the close of the ten track album the lilting folk of ‘In a Hole’ (no, not a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain track), with the emotive slow-burner ‘Time’ being something of a standout.
With Fra’s vocals, there’s a hint of Kate Bush in there, but equally, there are dashes of a host of others that are rather harder to place, making for a voice that’s distinctive yet familiar at the same time. Hers is an ultimately compelling voice that works with the material.
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At times charming and whimsical, jangly and cute – but never twee – and at others haunting and other still warm, rolling and subtly emotive, ‘Staring at the World’ manages to convey a range of moods and emotional states. Melodic without ever becoming cloying, ‘Staring at the World’ is at once very ‘now’ and equally timeless.
The Cellophane Flowers Online
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