Joanne Robertson — The lighter

Joanne Robertson makes lo-fi, mostly acoustic/or stripped down electric gitar mix of folk, punk, grunge that’s often very haphazard and discordant, though it's not with-out it’s own awkward and pained charm. The lighter is her debut album

All of the tracks consist mainly of her vocals and the often melancholy tuneful strums of her guitar with discordant edges here and there & the odd wondering bass lines appearing ever so offten. The production is nicely barren and stripped down with some slight echo but that’s about it-  it's like she’s singing just next to you. Though see’s uk based she has quite an American tinged to her voice which I guess is best described as Susanne Vager after a very bad night, meets wavering folkiness. Though much of the albums tracks are a little interchangeable in pace and musically content it does paint a nice barren felt air and really this kind thing is more about atmosphere and lyrics  which are nicely morose enough.

A passable debut that has a nice barren emotional resonance about it, but I think in the future she’ll have to add more elements and pace changers to her work otherwise I can see it becoming to one dimensional and a little bland.