Album Review

Charlotte Hatherley – New Worlds

• 7th Oct 2009

Charlotte Hatherley’s new album “New Worlds” is a novel addition to her aspiring career. Not content with conquering certain areas of the world in bands like “Ash”, “Client” and “Bat For Lashes” she continues her views on rock without dropping too much into the commercial world.

It’s almost like the coming together of The Cardigans and a PJ Harvey fan, forming a unique sound that isn’t afraid to toy around with sounds themselves. Hatherley does some supreme lyrical work, but perhaps shouldn’t layer her voice quite as much as she does here (see “Colours”) as it starts to sound a bit ‘Girl Band,’ which is unnecessary as her voice is more than capable of carrying her music confidently without over complicating itself.

But her ability to bounce around and toy around with different thematics is impressive. The forthcoming single from the album “Alexander” is suitably memorable for hooks and being oh so commercially viable. “Straight Lines” is far more punk an even stronger song. But then there is the gentle change into “Firebird” which demonstrates just why it is that she has managed to create a solo career for herself with ease. Hatherley seems to be able to slip from one sound to the next like a chameleon. This is further expressed through “Cinnebar” towards the end of the album which also brings the tone done again from her faster more aggressive pop songs. But even then it has to be said that her more pop-centric tunes are for the most party very memorable and can only help to increase sale numbers for tickets as well as the disc itself.

She is already established as a solo artist, but perhaps this album will push that a bit further as she deserves more attention for the work she is doing. But then it’s easy to see why this piece of pop art has been crafted so well as the production team behind the album is impressive, the ever busy Rob Ellis, and even busier mixer Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Curve, Arctic Monkeys, Smashing Pumpkins).