Alessi's Ark - Soul Proprietor (EP)
Label: Bella Union
Release date: 09/04/10
Website: Myspace
Anyone familiar with Alessi Laurent-Markeâs charming and idiosyncratic Notes from the Treehouse album from last year will find plenty to like here. As much as the EP sounds like a stopgap than having had love and care invested in it, the tracks are diverting enough to keep anticipation of a new full-length bubbling away.
âThe Robotâ is a very pretty opener, recovering from an uncomfortably sudden start thatâs a lot like walking in on someone half-dressed. Following on from this, âDancing Feetâ is probably the most evolved composition on the EP, starting with delicate fingerpicked guitar before shuffling onward with sweeping electric guitar strums and blocky drums. Despite being more dramatic and dynamic however, it doesnât quite match âThe Robotâ for sheer memory-sticking sweetness. Next, the vague and demo-like atmosphere of âShovellingâ is cute but far too brief and indistinct to make a lasting impression. âThe Bird Songâ is another sketch, running out of proper âsongâ in the middle and meandering to an improvised-sounding woodwind close. So by the conclusion weâve had a track thatâs too sombre, one too playful, one structurally unsound and âThe Robotâ âjust rightâ, Goldilocks-alike.
Hereâs the problem with Soul Proprietor, aside from its ostentatious name; it sounds more like a snapshot of a larger context of work rather than a standalone project. Itâs almost literally a soundbite of an album, with the shortest track just over 1:30 and the longest a smidge over the three minute mark. I wouldnât be surprised to hear these songs on the next Alessiâs Ark album in more fleshed-out incarnations; in fact Iâd probably welcome it. Alessi fails to stamp her personality very firmly across the four tracks here, and so the EP comes off sounding just a little anonymous. Itâs a little, hmm... Natalie Imbruglia. Anyone could be singing, it doesnât really matter who; which wasnât at all the case on Notes from the Treehouse. Alessiâs Ark operates in a comfortable middle ground between the sheer eye-twitching madness of Joanna Newsom and the mild manners of Laura Marling, whom Alessi has been supporting on tour this month. But since both Marling and Newsom released major new albums this year, Alessi might be drowned out to a great extent, pleasant though this EP is.
