Spectreview: Alicia Clara – Outsider/Unusual

Released: February 19, 2021

Indie Pop
(Psych Pop)

-RED-

For a guide to the review color rating system, click here.

“There is no end to this thirst
How much is enough?
Is enough the end?”

I liken pop music to sweets sometimes. I can’t help it. Something about the way pop is constructed, combined with how it often sounds, begs the comparison.

Swiss-Canadian artist Alicia Clara’s new record, if you’ll forgive the analogy, is cinnamon babka: an uncomplicated pleasure that’s layered and surprisingly difficult to make. Doubtless you’ve heard the kind of airy indie pop that comprises Outsider/Unusual before, but that doesn’t take away what Clara (born Streijffert) does here. The ambition here lies less in aural adventurousness than in sturdily-constructed tracks with thoughtful divergences, stuff that stands out from the fleets of similar material readily available on the airwaves. I usually find indie tracks with multiple sections a little played out, but Clara pulls the trick off handily on “Hazemaze.” Similarly, “Five” achieves narcotic bliss thanks to its harmonious coda following its humble beginning, and closer “Faceless”  It’s unchallenging music done skillfully, easy to enjoy but hard to pull off yourself.

What clearly stands out is Clara’s voice, thin and enveloping like rushing clouds on a windy day. There’s a distinct pleasure in listening to her voice roll over the guitar in “Flowers Were Better” and maneuver unpredictably around the changes of “Outsider/Unusual.” The general effect is like if Jessica Pratt fronted TOPS: intimate, mildly psychedelic pop that’s both structurally solid and moodily vaporous.

Recommended for hills with roads.