A Canadian musician who settled in Montreal to pursue recording as a singer/songwriter with a distinctly artful approach,
Helena Deland
drew the interest of
Luminelle Recordings
(
Fat Possum
/
House Arrest
) with her early EPs. Her full-length debut,
Someone New
, expands on the intimate, exploratory sounds of her earlier work, taking the form of a 13-song set with subtly shifting sounds and structures. Opener "Someone New" introduces
Deland
's gentle, youthful voice and distracted demeanor, at first over a drone that eventually falls on- and off-pitch. Just before the one-minute mark, the song picks up keys, a rhythmic guitar pattern, and muffled drums to establish a tempo, while
's surrealistic ruminations continue ("If things go my way/I'll stay in this room/Where tonight I want to lay/Kissing someone new/With a familiar face/ I can't replace"). The song settles into something outright catchy, though the occasional unexpected chord progression and details like disappearing bass keep things off-kilter. Later, the more-insistent "Dog" incorporates hip-hop beats and distortion, while "Comfort, Edge" adopts a sultry, R&B-indebted strategy. The latter also plays liberally with the edit and mix, including alternate vocal takes and various understated instrumental interjections. More-experimental tracks include the serpentine "Fruit Pie" and minimalist "Smoking at the Gas Station" ("I need to get out of the house today/To try my face out on strangers"), as well as the strings-and-guitar instrumental "The Walk Home." The album closes with the hushed "Fill the Rooms" ("with music"), a track with eerie multi-tracked vocals and harp-like arpeggiated guitar. Throughout
, on top of its hypnotic mix of the strange and familiar,
's vulnerable voice helps make her self-conscious, searching commentaries all the more engrossing. ~ Marcy Donelson