Hannah Georgas - Hannah Georgas (Dine Alone Records)
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| Hannah Georgas - Hannah Georgas |
Release Date: 25th November 2013
Earlier this year, I went on a
bit of a positive rant about the specific areas of the UK that seemed to be
churning out endless steams of excellent artists. Throughout the year, this
here blog has become increasingly international and I'm on a new rant; bloody
Canada. Canada is supposed to be lovely and safe and clean, Canada is not
supposed to produce a stream of talented and soulful musicians that make me
want to drink my own body weight in maple syrup and wrestle a moose. Hannah
Georgas is the latest talented Canadian to arrive at the door of LWM and boy is
she a talented lady?! The intermittent thrum of 'Elephant' opens proceedings
with a distinct Feist-yness about it before 'Somebody' takes things up another
notch mixing the Feist influences with Ladyhawke and Bat For Lashes style
personality. Georgas' voice is so cool and unaffected that you feel under no
pressure to hear her but you almost can't help being lured in to her fantasy
world through an inexplicably ornate mirror. On 'Enemies', Georgas takes the
music of the XX and cranks it up a bit whilst retaining the atmospheric
sensibilities and singing "You're going to make an enemy of me" in
potentially the least threatening way possible.
'Shortie' is Georgas' effort at
an out-and-out pop song as she promises to "Dance, dance, dance until the
cops come" and as fun as it sounds, she never really explains what she's
going to do when the cops come. Are they invited to the party? Anyway, things
take a turn for the mellow on 'Fantisize' before turning a sudden left turn
down kooky street on 'Millions' which contains some mild swearing, a statement
that "I wanna make a million buck, wanna make my millions" and a
melody that seems to be played out on whatever instrument they wrote the music
for 90s PC games on. 'Million's is certainly my favourite track on this album
and if it had been recorded by Weezer or Fountains of Wayne it would be a sure
fire indie disco hit. 'What You Do To Me' is sparse and minimalist but
simultaneously seductive and a little threatening - perfect soundtrack music.
The tender 'Ode To Mom' shows the depth and range of Georgas as she switches
from muted guitar work to stomping, anthemic rock that should grace a festival
crowd or at the very least an arena. Following on is the 80s pop throb of
'Waiting Game' which really should have been the opening music to a Judd Nelson
film about trying to get 'the' girl that he works with but who just doesn't
notice him because he's such a goof ball. Or something. Unusually, this album
has a bonus track in the shape of 'The Hardest Part' which is a sassy,
swaggering country-pop number with a dark heart and dead eyes. Georgas is at
least as good as every other artist I've mentioned in this review but the fact
that she is as good as all of them and she is just one woman makes her pretty
damn special indeed.
More information: http://www.hannahgeorgas.com/
Live Dates:
19th December - Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
21st February - Huxley's Neue Welt, Berlin