“All I Want”
from the album As Day Follows Night
2009/2010 (U.S.)
iTunes
Sarah Blasko’s third album takes a step away from the lushly dark art-pop of its predecessor, What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have, and moves in more theatrical and diverse directions. The orchestration largely runs about the same, an alternation between pianos and guitar with light strokes of drums weaving through. Yet while the songs are no less serious, most feel less like dirges. On the other hand, Blasko’s whispery vocals are more consistent, which is no detriment at all.
The strangest and most unique song on As Day Follows Night is a bouncy country number called “Hold on My Heart.” Through hillside oohs, staccato beats, and the clangs of a saloon piano, the vocals call out a square dance in mild-mannered style. Lyrically and vocally, Blasko makes no drastic departure; it’s the music alone with sets the song apart from the rest of the album and makes it a fun surprise.
Following this is the track most destined to become a single, “We Won’t Run.” It’s the closest this album comes to conventional, a midtempo pop song propelled by self-effacing drums and bass, augmented with keyboards and strings. It’s far from unlistenable, but considering the diversity of the rest of the album the song becomes, by comparison, one of its least compelling.
The remaining high points of the album tend to be swinging affairs or orchestral pieces focused around piano or keyboard. The former category includes the upright bass swagger of “Bird on a Wire” and the strutting bass piano of its sibling, “No Turning Back.” The latter style most comes through in the soft-to-symphonic “Sleeper Awake,” which features Blasko at her vocal best, wailing and whispering in full nuance. Another example of the style is found in “Lost and Defeated,” a piano heavy waltz which turns up the album’s intensity.
Though in the end I do like the music of What the Sea Wants better, Blasko’s newest contribution shows that she knows what to experiment with and what to hold constant. As Day Follows Night is a solid piece of songcraft that shows that she still has great things to offer.