February 15, 2012
Soko - 'I Thought I Was An Alien'
She makes sadness sound sweet, and sweetness sound sad
7 / 10
Imagine if ‘twee’ wasn’t insufferable, that sunshine and tra-la-las could co-exist with articulate thought. Wouldn’t it be magical? Wouldn’t it just be… pop? Soko started recording in her bedroom, just a girl with an acoustic guitar and GarageBand. But her debut album, recorded with Elliott Smith collaborator Fritz Michaud, looks beyond such puppy-eyed whining. The likes of ‘For Marion’ and ‘I Just Want To Make New With You’ have a knack for making sadness sound sweet, and sweetness sad; and while there are clichés here that love songs struggle to escape from, ‘I Thought I Was An Alien’ dumps twee cold and hard, running into pop’s warm embrace.
Anne T Donahue
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