After a period of burnout, self-enforced exile from music-making and solo travel, Katy J Pearson returns with new album ‘Someday, Now’ (out on 20 September via Heavenly Recordings). Recorded at the iconic Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire and produced by electronic producer Nathan ‘Bullion’ Jenkins (Carly Rae Jepsen, Ben Howard), the album finds Katy embracing a love of pop sounds while bearing her soul…
‘Those Goodbyes’ opens the record with distorted spoken-word samples, pure guitar hooks and background synths as Katy sings ‘I know you’re gonna do it, make me feel stupid’. It’s a song about trying to break free – and this is a subject that runs through the record. There’s a woozy bass line and disco beats aplenty on the opening to ‘Save Me’, another introspective piece where she looks back on falling for someone ‘when you dropped that bottle of grief’. ‘It’s Mine Now’ veers into a more baroque sound, although the subject is no less painful: ‘Tragedy, you come for me when I am lonely. I didn’t ask to be’. Although this is soon followed by owning these painful lessons in life: ‘This tragedy is mine now’.
‘Grand Final ‘ has a more abstract feeling with a dip into art rock, complete with scattergun riffs – although Katy will never lose sight of the Maccabees-esque pop sensibilities. ‘Someday’ fits in a similar mold with Katy sounding like she’s reading a diary entry – ‘Waking up on Monday, wishing it was Sunday, dreaming of someday, now’ – against a sparse and stripped-back sound before it finishes with a blast of brass. ‘Siren Song’ has a touch of Liz Phair in its alt-rock anthem sound, while the closing ‘Sky’ rounds off the album in more restrained and introspective fashion: ‘You’ve always been that way’.
‘Someday, Now’ is a heartfelt record that you’re going to want to listen to – and fall in love with – today.
