Sophie Mashlan: Perfect Disaster (digital outlets)

 |   |  1 min read

Sophie Mashlan: Perfect Disaster (digital outlets)

This young singer-songwriter is in her final year as a pop music student at the University of Auckland, but while others are getting singles together she leaps out with a fully-fledged, professional and mature album which has elements of dark country woven through the sometimes heroic pop-rock songs and the literate, reflective folk.

Given she's already sprung a couple of singles (included here), has opened for Donavon Frankenreiter and Vance Joy, and recorded this with the estimable Ben Edwards in his Lyttelton studio it's seems a bit redundant to say she's on her way.

She's already there.

And with material like the powerful, string-swirling big ballad Ocean's Tide here she is someone who commands attention for her expressive vocal power.

At the other end of her considerable emotional range she dials things right down to intimate acoustic folk (17 Days with a cleverly distant, almost hymnal backing vocal).

So here are 10 discrete songs – she doesn't anxiously overplay her hand but keeps the running time economic -- which deliver downbeat folk-rock (the acid anger of Not This Time with appropriately stinging guitar, the brooding menace of the single/opener Let You Down), widescreen acoustic ballads (the mini-epic Flowers and the Sea which must be compelling live), lyrics which hook (try Pictures) and interesting sonic settings with electric guitars, cello and much more.

Check out the powerful I'll Never Know, it's the calling card of someone who seems capable of channeling personal experience into popular art.

Sophie Mashlan is a preternaturally mature writer on the evidence of this album which announces an impressive talent to be heeded right now but is also going to be one to follow.

Already there.

ab6b506b_951c_4b6c_8606_68f481678519

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Nadia Reid: Out Of My Province (Spacebomb/Rhythmethod)

Nadia Reid: Out Of My Province (Spacebomb/Rhythmethod)

Some decades ago there was a lengthy promotion aimed at New Zealanders which went, “Don't leave home until you've seen the country”. Which is admirable and was designed to promote... > Read more

Carrie Rodriguez: Seven Angels on a Bicycle (EMI)

Carrie Rodriguez: Seven Angels on a Bicycle (EMI)

This album came out late last year but went largely ignored, even by me until I discovered it in a pile recently. And I'm very glad I did. Probably only known for her singing and fiddle... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF: Another invisible city

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF: Another invisible city

To be honest, to this day I couldn't tell you what it was all about, but I spent the best part of an afternoon trying to figure it out. It was in Amsterdam and I had done all the right art... > Read more

THE MIND AND TIMES OF REG MOMBASSA by MURRAY WALDREN: The strange and the simple

THE MIND AND TIMES OF REG MOMBASSA by MURRAY WALDREN: The strange and the simple

Less than a year after he had what the designer of the Sydney Olympics 2000 closing ceremony called “the biggest one-man show in history”, the artist known as Reg Mombassa was part... > Read more