Polly Scattergood // Polly Scattergood

The opening track on this album is mesmerising - I Hate The Way reignited my love of Portishead and at 7:08 minutes long, it never lets up in it’s relentless efforts of enticing and somewhat bewildering lyrics. Half of the songs on this debut album hit and exceed the 4 minute mark in length showing, if nothing else, the time and effort taken to perfect these pieces of music. The entire album is particularly well produced, which creates pleasant and professional sounding listening experience. Track 7 is simply beautiful – written from the heart, “Poem Song” is a story about the break up of a meaningful relationship, with Polly’s unique cocktail of digital sounds and soporific lyrics giving birth to a brand new breed of love song. Polly herself is infuriatingly adorable, and sometimes it’s hard not to feel a sense of naivety coming out through her songs. "Bunny Club” is a bizarre song, but delightfully electronic, and tells her story of leaving home in Colchester and moving to London at only16 years old. On his late night radio show, Rob Da Bank dubbed Polly Scattergood of “the Kate Bush of the 21st Century”, which is a fair claim. Her sound is a strange combination of Bjork and Damien Rice, two of the artists she states as her strongest influences. Although not my favourite style of music, this album defines the term “grower”, and is definitely worth a few listens before judgement.