by Paddy Kinsella

Signed to Partisan Records, Aerial East first previewed her forthcoming album, Try Harder, last October with the touchingly vulnerable title track. As its follow up, Katharine, demonstrates, scarcity is something the Brooklyn singer-songwriter is now ready to embrace.

Unlike her debut album, Rooms, which was released in 2016, Katharine puts the focus on East’s best asset – her chaste, childlike vocal. Though strings, backing vocals and guitar do combine in the conclusion, Katharine, for the most part, is little more than East’s voice. It’s a vocal of such strength that it’s able to direct the song unaccompanied – instilling all the drama and vulnerability required to keep you hooked.  East now sounds like an artist certain of their craft, and when you consider the destabilising ambience that haunts the edges of these two singles, Try Harder promises to be a very distinctive album indeed.