Astrid Williamson must be heartily fed up of being well received and highly respected.
The Scottish-born singer's past work as lead singer of 90s Indie trio Goya Dress and her four solo albums have all been greeted in this manner without her having achieved more than a modest level of crossover success.
I suppose there are worse fates, but Pulse is nevertheless an album by an artist determined to break old habits and try something different.
Actually the record is not such a radical a change as her label would have us think. It has the same emotionally charged ballads which have been a common feature of her career to date. The big difference lies in that these are presented within a broader sonic framework with a richer sense of space.
This is largely due to her choice of producer. Leo Abrahams impressed her when he performed as part of Brian Eno's Scenius project at the annual arts festival at Brighton where the she now lives. So much so that she sent him some demos of some new songs and he liked what he heard. He says that he was particularly drawn to her material as "I detected that she was heading somewhere she hadn't been before - that is pretty much the condition under which I like to work with an artist".
Abrahams work here reminds me of his mentor, Eno's production of Jane Siberry's When I Was A Boy with the same subtle use of textures to bring out the clear, serene qualities of Astrid's voice without overwhelming it.
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Most of the tracks are underpinned by delicate piano refrains; on one of the best tracks, Paperbacks, he even cheekily steals the intro from Eno's Music For Airports.
Arrangements range from the relatively uncomplicated washes of sound on a song like Connected to busier, more complete makeovers like Cherry with its multi-layered vocals and full repertoire of harp and percussive effects.
Titles like Pour and Underwater encourage the use of watery metaphors to describe the sounds - flowing, drifting, liquid etc . Dance and the title track have a more chilled disco mood.
With this album, Astrid Williamson's name can be added to the list of female artists that like Sia and Beth Orton who have all been remodelled within a muted trip-hop style template.
Whether this will gain her a wider audience is debatable although it does seem more attuned to a singer intent on maturing gracefully rather than continuing to plough the same furrow.
Astrid Williamson's Website
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