Listen/Watch: Aldous Harding - "The Barrel"

From the release of her debut self-titled album, New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding has made a career out of carefully plotted tales of love and all its disasters. With sophomore album Party, released by 4AD in 2017, Harding made a slight pivot from the creeping folk of her self-titled to a more polished production rooted more concretely in pop. The result was an absolute stunner of an album that didn't trade accessibility in for Harding's excellent though furtive lyricism.

"The Barrel", the new single from Harding's upcoming third album Designer, is the latest in her surreptitiously plotted oeuvre. Preferring poetic lyricism over narrative clarity, "The Barrel" leaves a lot to the listener's imagination in both its words and its accompanying visuals directed by Martin Sagadin and Harding. "The wave of love is a transient hunt" Harding offers up as bread crumb of the song's intent. Ultimately, though Harding's a deft hand with particular turns of phrase, Harding's real skill is encompassing a feeling that she doesn't feel the need to rely on narrative structure to convey. Her intent seems not to tell you anything you can't get a feel for from her words and her song's twinkling, dreamlike svelteness. And in that regard "The Barrel" succeeds: holding you in thrall with as Harding's vocals wash over you like siren song. For all the drama she can invoke with her vocals, Harding maintains a enchanting hush and in the video - maintains firm eye contact and a subtlety of motion. Ever choice seems tailor made to mystify while Harding seems to assert a sense of independence. "I'm not getting wet", "I'm not getting led along". "The Barrel" might be a love song of sorts but Harding quickly establishes it's not one where she's getting sweep along in the rush of it. She's clear eyed and, while not all together apprehensive, intends to be in control.



Aldous Harding's third full length album Designer is out on 4AD and Flying Nun on April 26th.

Listen/Watch: Aldous Harding - "Imagining My Man"

I was introduced to New Zealand singer/songwriter Aldous Harding through her touring with several musicians I already knew and loved like Andy Shauf and Tiny Ruins. I was immediately taken by Harding's bewitching vocals and her incredible anachronistic brand of folk. Her songs were simultaneously sparse but featured intricately paced narratives and just the right infusion of strings and harmonies. Though I was incredibly late to her debut (I listened to the Flying Nun re-release of her self-titled record in December), I've eagerly awaited the news of her upcoming album.

"Imagining A Man" is the second single from her forthcoming sophomore record and 4AD debut Party and it finds Harding moving in a decidedly more conventional direction. Where first single "Horizon" was both reminiscent of her debut while pushing her sound forward and her lyricism, "Imagining My Man" manages both to push Harding's sound forward and her lyricism inward. Where her tales on her self-titled seemingly belonged to bygone eras, "Imagining My Man" seems not only could it happen in the here and now but that it can effect you. Where Harding sang of love and fear in the form of hunters, beasts of prey, and hauntings, Harding presents a her love song both far more intimately and vaguely but in that vagueness Harding draws a compelling amount of drama. Harding has established herself as a gifted storyteller armed not only with an impressive, evocative vocabulary but enchanting sense of pacing and "Imagining My Man" is no different. The difference lies in Harding trying on a sort of different skin; that of a pop singer and it fits surprisingly well. Though those wondering if a lean toward pop might erase what made her so unique need only look to "Horizon" her previous single off Party to get the sense that Harding beguiling sense of mystifying eeriness is alive and well and making it's way out of Harding in increasingly unexpected ways. "Horizon" and "Imagining My Man" couldn't be more different and that makes my anticipation for Party all the most palpable. 



Aldous Harding's second full length album Party is out May 19th on 4AD/Flying Nun. You can pre-order it here.