Sunday 2 February 2014

Soak - Blud


Any regular readers of The Gizzle will know I'm a huge fan of CHVRCHES.  'The Bones Of What You Believe' featured in The Gizzle Review's Top Albums of 2013, an album I still listen to regularly.  Now the Glaswegian trio have set up their own label, Goodbye Records, and Soak is their first signing.

And she couldn't be more different - at least initially.  Where CHVRCHES favour bubbling synth pop, the seventeen year old Derry songwriter (Bridie Monds-Watson) favours an acoustic guitar.  In fact, she played each instrument on Blud herself (except the bass).  She's already drawing comparison to the likes of Cat Power and Joni Mitchell, with her downbeat and brooding songs.

Blud was inspired by the singer overhearing an argument, but melancholy makes way for positivity, the chorus ending with "let's just forget".  Soak is a youthful performer with a strong sense of maturity, her music filled with gritty realism yet sung with a fragile vocal.

It's this that makes Soak a great match for CHVRCHES - raw songwriting simmers underneath their own electro songs.  It should make for an interesting partnership.

4/5

Listen: Blud is released on 17th March.