GenQ - For the not so straight individual

If you’re as cynical as I am you may have seen KT Tunstall clutching a metallic guitar and dressed like an 80’s glam rock star on the cover of her new album, ‘Drastic Fantastic’ and assumed she’d sold out, hit the big time with her first album, ‘Eye to the Telescope’, and traded her soul to the pop devil for continued chart glory. Shame on us for being so cynical, because her musical integrity remains firmly in tact. ‘Drastic Fantastic’ retains the mix of folksy-bluesy rock that made KT Tunstall an indie darling, while still being a little more refined and mainstream than her previous release.

Tunstall’s music often draws comparisons to Sarah Maclachlan and Jewel, artists that so successfully walk the line between folk and pop. She does have a similar vocal ability, at times earthy and commanding and at others angelic and ethereal, capable of conveying sorrow or suffering by jumping up to the falsetto mid-vowel. She hates being compared to Dido, a couple of years ago claiming that Dido “can’t fucking sing�, (she later apologised), but whether Tunstall likes it or not they do have comparable vocal styles. The poetic and metaphorical, ‘White Bird’, sounds very much like a song you’d find on a Dido album. This contemplative track has a bluesy folk sound that makes it feel like a throwback to early 70’s folk music. The reflective, ‘Beauty of Uncertainty’, also has the drifting, moody feel of a Dido song, as does ‘Paper Aeroplane’. But that’s as bluesy as Tunstall gets this time around, dialing it back from her last album.

Album openers, ‘Little Favours’, and, ‘If Only’, are radio-friendly acoustic alt/rock love songs with great hooks and floating vocals. The charming and introspective, ‘Hopeless’, is an ironically hopeful song, and ‘I Don’t Want You Now’ has a rockier edge, a polite “fuck you� to someone who didn’t treat you well. ‘Someday Soon’ is a delightful folk-pop song that recalls Simon and Garfunkle, and the cheerful “ooh oohs� on boisterous ‘Saving My Face’ belie the serious anti-plastic surgery message.

But it’s ‘Funnyman’ and first single, ‘Hold On’, that stand out as highlights on ‘Drastic Fantastic’. Unfortunately for us they’re also the shortest tracks on the album, coming in at just under three minutes long. Featuring a ukulele and a laid back beat, ‘Funny Man’ has a wonderful reggae flavour and ‘Hold On’ almost sounds like a sequel to her pop hit, ‘Suddenly I See’, featuring the same style of wind up energetic chorus, but with a more hypnotic beat.

Like the United States, Australia was slow to jump onto the KT Tunstall appreciation train. ‘Suddenly I See’ from previous album became her break-out pop hit only a few months ago she has added it on to ‘Drastic Fantastic’ for new fans. However, it does serve to remind the listeners that as good as some of the tracks are, maybe one or two of them reach the same heights as ‘Suddenly I See’.

‘Drastic Fantastic’ is one of those albums you can put on and listen to from start to finish without it getting predictable or stale. KT Tunstall has delivered more infectious indie pop, blending blues and roots with folk sounds to create an album of solid, though mostly unremarkable tracks.