Under The Influence

A couple of tracks in I was pretty convinced I'd stumbled on some rather dark material in my collection - almost invoking images of Sisters of Mercy. As it went on I started to pick up restrained Bjorkesk moments in the vocals in the lead singer's tone. I'd changed my opinion by the end of the album.

I like the instrumentation used throughout. Rhodes, piano, harpsichord, snares, handclaps; I think I even spotted a dash of theremin in there. I really like the rhythmic elements they choose to throw into the mix. Prescilla has some great examples of loose acoustic beats that really work.

It's not as dark as I'd envisaged, or at least elements of it aren't. It still feels gothy/vampirey/fantasy based but it almost like it contradicts that with the lyrical work (the content being kind of urban). Oh, I don't know what's going on, but I do like it.

As a completely irrelevant aside, the first second of What's a Girl To Do sounds like it's sampled from a Beach Boys track (Sloop John B I think). Told you it was irrelevant.