Bleep

Auckland’s Aldous Harding is a contemporary songwriter par excellence. Her knack is for crafting torch-songs that hold great power in their bare-bones combination of piano, drums, guitar and a little synthesiser, all pulled together by her earthy and versatile voice. Party - her first album with new label 4AD - sees Harding bring forward nine shrewd, deceptively complex odes, and Sparklehorse/PJ Harvey producer John Parish tends to them with an intimacy that is at times chilling, at times funny, but always powerful. Fresh from his own excellent recent full-length No Shape, Perfume Genius lends vocals to ‘Imagining My Man’ and ‘Swell Does the Skull’.