Strangest Feeling by Bonniesongs
With heavy thrums of detuned guitars entwined with layers of angelic airy vocals, the forthcoming new album Strangest Feeling shows Bonniesongs’ masterful ability to balance sound and silence, reminding us that music, at its core, is simple vibration moving through air. Bonniesongs makes music that is both mellow and hazy and driven and edgy, traversing art-folk, psychedelia, dream-pop and grunge. She could also be compared to art-rock and alternative artists such as PJ Harvey, Feist and Grouper for her music’s raw, hypnotic qualities, although Bonniesongs’ style sits more in a ‘ethereal grunge’ category of its own, one she’s been carving out since her 2019’s debut album Energetic Mind (Small Pond/Art As Catharsis). Once described by artist Fink, who championed Bonniesongs heavily on his KCRW radio show and toured Australia with her early this year as having “a deceptively hard edged soft-core.”
Strangest Feeling is a collection of songs written amongst the limbo of the lockdowns and the transition back to life. A flavour of autumn runs through the album, intwined with themes of spells, the ocean and Halloween. The punky riffs and driving drums of new single ‘Olive Oil’ and the album’s second single ‘Bittersweet’ are reminders of fun and joy. ‘Olive Oil’ recalls 90s Americana indie such as Pavement, with the song’s prominent drums inspired by Deerhunter’s track ‘Never Stops’. While with ‘Bittersweet’ we get a slice of unadulterated punky grunge in the playful ode to finding fun in chaos, inspired by Bonnie’s stay in New Zealand during the pandemic.
The album’s first single, ‘Halloween Birthday’ (notably released last year on the 31 October) is a more lo-fi affair with finger plucked melody, its autumnal hues giving off a beguiling witchy feel. Bonniesongs’ describes it, alongside the songs ‘Weightless’ and ‘Keeper’, as “the tracks on the album inspired by nostalgia, secrets and space.” Their hypnotic feel and slow tempos create a feeling of rest to the end of the album.
The album’s ‘love songs’ come in the form of art-rock pop ballad and album opener ‘Dragon’, the grungy psych-folk of ‘Whipping Bird’ and the dreamy indie-rock of title track ‘Strangest Feeling’ (a semi-finalist within two categories in the International Songwriting Competition), collectively exploring relationships with others and oneself. The haunting layers of vocals, whistles and strings of Take Off offer the album’s most emotive song however, with Bonniesongs taking the listener on an emotional journey exploring connection to place and home, capturing the unrest of missing home when you move country. As with a few tracks on the album, the unsettling times of the pandemic lace the songs with the strange otherworldliness of that time.
On Strangest Feeling Bonniesongs tackles the most visceral of life experiences, with all their sharp edges, then wraps them in a sensory, expansive cloud of dream-like glaze.
Tracklist
| 1. | Dragon | 5:08 |
| 2. | Strangest Feeling | 4:30 |
| 3. | Bittersweet | 3:50 |
| 4. | Stay Fun | 1:11 |
| 5. | Olive Oil | 3:13 |
| 6. | Take Off | 4:46 |
| 7. | Halloween Birthday | 4:19 |
| 8. | Whipping Bird | 5:48 |
| 9. | Weightless | 6:24 |
| 10. | Keeper | 3:41 |
Credits
All songs on Strangest Feeling were written by Bonniesongs, and she plays guitar and sings on all tracks and plays drums on tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9. Guest musicians on the album include Thomas Botting on double bass/electric guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), Rhys Motley on guitar (tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Tully Ryan on drums (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5), Tony Buchen on electric bass (track 2) with Freya Schack-Arnott and Peter Hollo on cello (former on tracks 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and latter track 1), with
Adam Gottieb supplying the album’s field recorded sounds.
Bonniesongs co-produced Strangest Feeling alongside Tony Buchen (Susan O Neill, Smashing Pumpkins, Mildlife, Tomberlin, Chris Bear (Grizzly Bear) in Church Street Studios, Australia on tracks 2, 7, 9, 10, and with Alyx Dennison on tracks 1, 4, 5 and David Trumpmanis (Sarah Blasko, The Church, The Dead Sea) on tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 at St Peter’s and Golden Retriever studios. David Trumpmanis also mixed and mastered the album. Alyx and David are long-tern collaborators of Bonniesongs and worked with her on her debut album Energetic Mind.
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Bonniesongs makes music that is both mellow and hazy and driven and edgy, traversing art-folk, psychedelia, dream-pop and grunge. She could also be compared to art-rock and alternative artists such as PJ Harvey, Feist and Grouper for her music’s raw, hypnotic qualities, although Bonniesongs’ style sits more in a ‘ethereal grunge’ category of its own.