March 9, 2011

Album Review: Alex Winston - Sister Wife (Heavy Roc)

Alluring and cute, but blending in quickly with the beige alternative pop wallpaper

5 / 10 The latest brave heart to venture onto the high-wire that is adult alternative pop, Alex Winston’s modest thrills are in the poise with which she smuggles hints of indie strangeness into Ellie Goulding/Vanessa Carlton/Donna Lewis (delete according to age) radio pop.

‘Locomotive’’s Bush-esque coos exhibit a strangely West Country child-woman voice, while the title track has a sedated Of Montreal-by-way-of-Marina glam-pop hip-hop shuffle, and ‘Don’t Care Anything’ comes on like a great lost Tanya Donelly track.

It’s charming, but nothing more than background. Whether she will push into more courageous territory still or plummet into blandness remains to be seen.

Emily Mackay

5/10

Order a copy of Alex Winston's 'Sister Wife' from Amazon