Sling Review

The reference points are stated clearly: the singer songwriter records of the early seventies, all Rhodes piano, close harmony, clarinet and a drum kit played with brushes. It was cut in a converted barn upstate with a producer who specialises in exactly this warmth, and as a piece of craft it is lovely. Blouse is the standout, a whispered song about being looked at rather than heard, with a harmony vocal that arrives late and lifts the whole thing.

Amoeba is the one with momentum. Zinnias is about imagining a domestic life she is not sure she wants. Partridge and Just for Today are gorgeous and slight. The difficulty is energy: across forty five minutes almost everything sits at the same soft tempo and the same low volume, and the record asks you to lean in for the entire duration. Reward is there for those who do. For everyone else it drifts past. Elegant, sincere and a bit airless.