When I first heard New Zealand singer Aldous Harding in 2019, I thought she sounded like Stereolab playing folk songs. That year, she released her third album, Designer, through 4AD. The similarity between her voice and Lætitia Sadier’s was particularly clear on songs such as Fixed Picture and Zoo Eyes. Both artists even performed at OFF Festival in 2019 which I've attended, giving us a chance to compare them live.
Harding, however, had something else that intrigued me - an extraordinary talent for writing songs. It was already clear that she was a songwriter with a remarkable imagination. On Designer, she was still interested in verses and choruses. On Warm Chris, released three years later, she moved towards songs that were richly arranged and intimate at the same time.
Train on the Island, Harding’s latest release, was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, once again with John Parish, also known for his long collaboration with PJ Harvey. Parish is not a producer who deals in sonic revolutions. You can hear that on PJ Harvey’s records, and the same applies to Harding’s new album. This is a record on which she takes a small step forward. There are more electronics and looped beats, but the change is not radical. Something else keeps me coming back to it.
In her videos and onstage, Harding presents herself as an avant-garde and expressive performer. Yet she has made an album filled with calm. Although its lyrics deal with loneliness and struggling with yourself, the record has the same effect on me as the medication mentioned in the title track - it calms the mind: I hate my perception, but the medication slows my mind. Train on the Island has joined the group of albums I play whenever I need to restore a sense of inner balance.
It certainly helps that the album is filled with atmosphere and melancholy. There is the opening I Ate the Most, with echoes of Air-style dream pop, the sleepy Worms, and What Am I Gonna Do?, built around an intriguing groove. On the single One Stop, Harding plays with the structure of the song. She builds it around a lively piano motif before moving into a calm, Kate Bush-style coda. The guitar ballad Venus in the Zinnia, which appears halfway through the album, offers a welcome change of pace. Harding sings it with H. Hawkline - their voices complement each other beautifully.
Instead of showing off its eccentricity, Train on the Island allows the emotions hidden beneath the surface of these songs to come through. And perhaps that is why it works so well for me.