Harkin - Harkin

  by Zena Grieg

published: 13 / 7 / 2020

Label: Harkin
Format: CD

intro

Excellent combination of pop and atmospheric electronica on debut album from Leeds-born musician Katie Harkin

‘Harkin’ is the debut album of Leeds-born Katie Harkin, who previously toured with Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Flock of Dimes, Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett. She also performed backing vocals for Dua Lipa on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and composed for the Turner Prize winning artist Helen Marten and comedian Josie Long. Harkin wrote her debut album between borrowed rooms while touring and, as she puts it, “in a cottage among the howling moors of The Peak District National Park, searching for a sound that combined the eeriness of the English countryside with the pace of the mechanized world… Many of these songs grew from the tension between opposites. Between the wilderness and the city, between self-examination and communal ecstatic, night and day, love and shame.” 'Harkin' includes a collection of well-crafted indie pop songs. Highlights include the up-tempo singles ‘Nothing the Light Can’t Change', a love song inspired by the North of England, with its insinuating chorus, gothic-like post-punk guitar riffs and thudding percussion; ‘Dial It In’, a song about “valuing intuition over entitlement”, propelled by its driving bass, the insistent message about not just going through the motions – “ No, you can’t just dial it in” - contrasting with the understated texture of the song; while ‘Red Virginia Creeper’ gives a different complexion with its experimental fusion of electronic sound, keyboards and feedback. All are carried competently by Harkin’s weathered, melodic voice. Shifting capably between polished pop and atmospheric electronics, this is a debut album of note.

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