LISA MITCHELL – WONDER
Lisa Mitchell comes to us at a time when the cute is dangerously close to becoming the dominant form of expression in indie pop – take the insufferable machine that is Katie Perry’s management, or the sweet-but-grating Kate Nash. Here we have another Brit lass who knows her way around a whimsical sentiment, but is able to present her thoughts with enough wit and rough-edged acoustic flair that the songs come across as genuine. There isn’t an abundance of heart-stopping melodies here, but there are some interesting production moments and thanks to a reassuring consistency of tone in Mitchell’s voice and her ragged, festival friendly backing instrumentation, it’s all highly listenable. There’s a hint of the rambling 1970’s Dylan in some of this stuff, particularly the sly So Jealous. Sometimes things can even tug the heartstrings in the right way so as to be drawn into her wryly heartbroken world – take the Fiest-esque Clean White Love and the driving, pretty Stevie. It seems there’s always a ghost in Lisa Mitchell’s songs, and it manifests itself in various ways; whether it be the whisper of an elder artist occasionally peppering her sound, or some demons of past regrets still crackling away in her lyrics. This sense of other-ness wrapped up in her simple and affecting pop songs helps to give Lisa the edge over her contemporaries, someone who is bound to grow enormously in both cult appeal and musical prowess.
***1/2
