Austra
Feel It Break

The feeling one gets when listening to the debut album of the Canadian band Austra for the first time is that of a record that could be described as seductive, as icy as it is passionate. Although the group borrows much from that 80s style where one hears at times a mix between Depeche Mode and Human League, the voice of the group, Katie Stelmanis, so powerful and at the same time glacial, recalls both Fever Ray but also the voice of Clannad's Marie Brennan (sister of Enya, among other things).

I listened to the album directly from vinyl; it’s a personal preference of mine to purchase everything I can in this format because the listening experience is different and, in my opinion, more attentive. It's an electro-pop album, but also dark, and this is evident from the first notes of the track that opens the album: "Darken Her Horse" with its melody that becomes indelibly etched in your head. Then moving through the other tracks, with tightly arranged electro elements and Stelmanis's sensual voice, we arrive at "Spellwork." Personally, it struck me because it made me replay the needle quite a few times. In the middle part, the album somewhat loses its way and it becomes more difficult to recall some tracks until reaching "The Villain," beautiful in how it sounds very '80s but at the same time doesn't have that "heard it before" feel.

Considering that many bands like Junior Boys, Holy Ghost, Penguin Prison, to name a few, have brought back an intelligent revival formula of the legendary 80s, the "Austra", who try to tap into the darker vein, are no exception. "Shoot The Water," almost at the end, marks a change of pace, demonstrating that our group knows how to tackle different musical formulas. The Canadian trio knows how to play, and it shows. After listening to it several times and having by pure chance listened to "The First Picture Of You" by Lotus Eaters on the radio, I could only imagine how this album is the natural evolution in an original key of that track. Even with some understandable imperfections, the album is dark and thrilling, laden with "sticky" melodies, and leaves high hopes for Austra's artistic future.