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NBHAP Rating: 3/5
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[one_half last=”yes”]SOAK
Before We Forget How To Dream
Release-Date: 01.06.2015
Label: Rough Trade/Beggars
Tracklist:
01. My Brain
02. B a noBody
03. Blud
04. Wait
05. Sea Creatures
06. A Dream To Fly
07. 24 Windowed House
08. Garden
09. Shuvels
10. Hailstones Don’t Hurt
11. Reckless Behaviour
12. If Everyone Is Someone – No One Is Everyone
13. Oh Brother
14. Blind
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A Prodigy?
Prodigal is a word that is thrown around a lot with artists who are extremely young when they enter the music business, and SOAK is no different. This Irish singer began to make music when she was just 13 and now, five years later, her latest work continues to intrigue her fans around the world. In Before We Forget How To Dream, SOAK divulges the extent to which her modern style artfully considers her very acoustic-friendly voice. Opening with My Brain, the album anticipates a heavily electronic work but then, instead of blending the synth into the next track, she cuts it off and allows her vocals to shine through.
Much of a Muchness
When released last year, Sea Creatures received extremely high praise for its thoughtful and open lyrics. But, its inclusion in this new album can appear incongruous. The emotional range in Before We Forget How To Dream can be, at times, frustratingly limited. Relying on vocals that seem tailor-made for her chords and not for the intended emotion often results in broken sequences of expression. Despite this, SOAK draws her listener in during more considered tracks, such as Garden that successfully combines lyrics of youthful devotion with an assertive rhythmical melody.
Angst With Potential
Her most intriguing tracks are the ones that offer more than a melancholic accompaniment to teen angst and, at these moments, the potential for growth in SOAK’s music really shines through. But, at other times, while SOAK exhibits the breathy acoustics that reminisce of BIRDY or JONI MITCHELL, she does not assert the same mastery over her range, whether that is musically or lyrically. SOAK’s music is still very cautious, and her lyrics can be, at times, similarly limited. But, because SOAK is already demonstrating her excellent ear for fusing different genres, hopefully a more powerful sound will come with time.
SOAK’s anticipated debut album shows both: Her excellent ear for fusing genres and the still existent limitations in her songwriting – there is potential for growth.
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