Album: The Overture and the Underscore
Artist: Sarah Blasko
Label: Dew Process/Universal
Sounds like: More sophisticated Missy Higgins

Sarah is the daughter of missionaries who returned to Australia and church-hopped from Anglican to Baptist to Pentecostal, where she received musical baptism and “music was up there with God in importance.” But don’t expect praise and worship on “The Overture. “ The lyrics are labyrinthine (sample: “the horizon meets your horse and you’re deliberating”), and the sound is mostly a mesmerising, dark blend of electronica and folky acoustic guitars and piano. It contains the wonderful and carefree “Always worth it”, where her Björk meets Sixpence’s Leigh Nash voice hits that deliciously fragile high note, and the almost Coldplay or Keane-ish “Don’t u eva.” But it does peter out with a trio of left-of-centre dirges, letting the side down a little.

Three out of Five