As Day follows Night - CD

ENGLISH

In modern pop, Sarah Blasko is a rare beast. On the one hand, she is a fiercely-independent free spirit whose haunting music critics have run out of superlatives to describe. On the other, the 33 year old Australian is a multi-platinum selling star whose mantelpiece houses an ever increasing array of awards and who performed at the closing ceremony of Sydney's Commonwealth Games.

Europe's introduction to Blasko is long overdue, with the release on indie label Dramatico of her ARIA Award-winning, third album, As Day Follows Night. Produced by Björn Yttling (from Peter, Bjorn and John) and recorded in a Swedish studio once frequented by Abba, As Day Follows Night is an elegant, intelligent collection of quirky, captivating pop songs of heartbreak and hope. There are elements of folk and jazz in the album's bold but sparse instrumentation, though don't be fooled that this is a regular singer/songwriter record. There are also references to Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone and Talking Heads that belie the aching sadness of the lyrics, peculiar percussion and adventurous arrangements. However, most striking of all are Blasko's bewitching vocals, at once intimate and otherworldly.

Sydney-born Blasko first found her voice singing with her mother in Pentecostal church and had a brief spell fronting bands whilst studying for a degree in English literature. Her real career began when she struck out solo in 2002. An early EP release was followed by 2004's platinum-selling, debut album, The Overture & the Underscore and 2007's nautically-themed, ARIA Award-winning successor, What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have.

Recently voted Album Of The Year by Triple J, Australia's biggest national radio network, and nominated for a mighty five ARIAs (Blasko picked up Best Female), As Day Follows Night is already Blasko's biggest seller. Written over several months in 2007 while she was simultaneously composing the score for the Bell Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet-'in which she also performed-'it is her most lyrically direct, musically simple and emotionally affecting album to date.

The album's intriguing adventure takes in highlights as diverse as the spaghetti-western strains of single 'All I Want ', the joyous pop of 'Hold On My Heart ' and the prickly, leftfield folk of 'Over & Over '. There's also the spooky, bluesy shudder of 'Lost & Defeated ', and its tribute to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the double bass-drive of 'Bird On A Wire ', sizzling, old-school jazz club vibes and the album's dreamy, debut single, 'We Won't Run '.