Virginia (via Ohio) singer Natalie Prass was about to enter the studio to record her second album when something terrible happened - the result of the 2016 US presidential election. But relax - The Future and The Past is no exercise in Trump bashing - that would be far too easy for an artist as enigmatic and inventive as Prass. She determined to make an album that would lift her spirits and, as she says, lifts other people’s too.
She’s certainly succeeded with a set of thought-provoking songs that also have the dancefloor at their heart. This is also possibly the most sophisticated album you’ll hear all year. It flirts with exacting, almost metronomic funk slickness, the melancholia of Abba, and on Far From You, a flawless Karen Carpenter impression, which nearly outdoes that sorrowful siren.
The Fire could be an eighties FM hit and there’s nineties r `n’ b on the superb Short Court Style, while the slow groove of Hot For The Mountain is embellished with piano, sumptuous strings and the faint tinkle of bells. Elsewhere, Prass sounds like Haim trading harmonies with Wilson Phillips on Nothing to Say, which glides along on glissandos of harp and is one of the few directly political songs here. Prass’ second album is already up there as one of the records of the year. And oh, what a voice.
Alan Corr @corralan
