Music > Album Reviews

Meadowlark - Postcards

02/05/17

Back in 2014, YouTube sensation Kate McGill teamed up with fellow Plymothian Daniel Broadley and became Meadowlark. They released an EP, Three Six Five, which demonstrated that there was  more to Kate than just on-line covers of Adele hits. With a mixture of electro folk-pop flourishes and moody production, Broadley created the perfect platform for her expressive vocals.

Fast forward to 2017 and the debut album all but ditches the acoustic guitar and instead concentrates on atmospheric keyboards and studio enhancements as a canvas on which to overlay lyrical imagery. It is a formula that worked well last year for the likes of Oh Wonder, Avec Sans and Alpines, but with Meadowlark's Postcards there is the feeling that they might already be arriving too late to be 'wishing we were here'.

Tracks like Fly, Satellite, Paraffin and Eyes Wide (in which McGill sounds spookily like Ellie Goulding) have all been around for over a year now. Whilst the album is eagerly awaited it already sounds somewhat familiar.

Ultimately, Postcards delivers the views and the sentiments in a beautifully crafted package, but has questionably lost some of the spontaneity and freshness that a Snapchat message or an Instagram photo can bring.

7/10