Katy J Pearson – Someday, Now

Garbled electronic speech makes for an unexpectedly eerie first few seconds of Katy J Pearson’s third studio album Someday, Now, before the Bristol-based musician’s familiar bright, crisp guitar comes floating in, and the track – Those Goodbyes – blossoms into a sweetly wistful pop melody. 

Across the record, Pearson and producer Bullion concoct a sparkling mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds. Grand Final contrasts crunching, rough-edged guitar with effervescent synths and backing vocals. The swooping, Kate Bush-esque vocal lines on Siren Song are paired with smoky 80s guitar reverb, which also drenches the bounding jangle pop of Maybe. Long Range Driver is gritty and dry as a dirt track, whereas Save Me is cool, pulsing electro-pop. Those Goodbyes offers the most exquisite of many gorgeous, swaying choruses across the album, rendered in soft girl-group harmonies, though there’s no track here quite as infectious as Pearson’s 2020 single Take Back the Radio or the soaring chorus of 2022’s Talk Over Town.

While the slippery compressed horns and strings snaking through a few tracks feel a little over-sanitised, they do match the sense of unease in Pearson’s lyrics reflecting on loss and pain, like shadows subtly bleeding into her kaleidoscopic soundscape.

Listen to: Those Goodbyes, Grand Final, Siren Song