It’s easy to feel for 24-year-old Sophie Allison. Alongside her considerable success, she’s created a cottage industry for her weary confessionals, and three albums in, things aren’t getting any easier. “I don’t know how to feel things small,” she admits on “Still”. “It’s a tidal wave or nothing at all.” You can sense all the effort it takes to keep her head above water. Allison is an incisive lyricist. On early, breakthrough tracks like “Cool”, it’s impossible to tell if she is repulsed or drawn to her friend’s casual cruelty. Here, the slightly creepy “Unholy Affliction” seems to suggest addiction to her art – and it’s not necessarily a good thing. Yet despite adherence to a blueprint, Allison’s gifts are undeniable. Beneath it all emerges a crystalline voice, and an uncanny ear for melody. And she’s worked to break up her sad, strummy sameness. The last album swapped edgy guitars for synths and a holographic soundstage. Sometimes lets menace creep in by way of producer Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never). Lopatin paints in subtle crescendos and foreboding that permeate tracks like “Darkness Forever”, “Unholy” and “Don’t Ask Me”. Even a sweet, hook-laden track like “Shotgun” can’t escape. The chorus pledges devotion to her lover (“When you want me, I’ll be around”) before turning it on end: “I’m a bullet in a shotgun waiting to sound.”
Review by Jeff McCord
