Written ‘over a period of time spent inside my shell’, Eerie Wanda’s (Dutch/Croatian audio and visual artist Marina Tadic) second album ‘Pet Town’ will be released via Joyful Noise Records on 25 January.
The record opens with its title track, a song that mixes nature sounds, finger clicks, folky whistles and soulful lullaby vocals. Marina discusses feeling free and getting around with playful glee and the stripped-back sound is reminiscent of the current generation of ‘anti-folk songwriters’ including Anna Burch. Following this is ‘Big Blue Bird’, a song full of M. Ward-style strums, cheeky bass lines and horseshoe-sounding clop-clops. With lyrics including ‘I’ve lately been thinkin a lot about your funny eyes. I’ve lately been wearing that dress that you always loved’, ‘Rockabiller’ has a fittingly rockabilly sound and wildly visceral lyrics: ‘He’s my thrill, he’s my favorite rockabiller’; ‘I hear his voice from afar, it comes from the woods’; ‘I smoke a cigarette and dance with my favorite lover, there’s no other’.
There’s a calypso feel to ‘Magnetic Woman’ which has layers upon layers of vocals and acts as a love letter to a beautiful stranger. Marina makes wry obseravtions about a woman’s style (including her ‘golden lips’) amidst music akin to that of the opening song of a Broadway show: ‘Beautiful woman beneath your window. She walks eyes wide open. Enigmatic whispers she talks’. ‘Moon’ is more intricate and insular with finger-picked guitar and fairground-style atmospherics. ‘The Intruder’ starts with an admission: ‘I love The Intruder, he is on a mission. Leans towards me and explains who I am’. In a style similar to Angel Olsen, she leaves you wondering whether the subject is a real person or an aspect of her mental health. ‘Hands of the Devil’ is bursting with handclaps and ’60s pop moments akin to Basia Bulat and Martha Ffion, while the closing ‘Truly’ is a love song that contains references to watching favorite movies and words about how ‘the people around you fail to see you truly’.
This record is full of otherworldly charm and one that you’ll want to absorb yourself in over and over again.