Class Actress - Journal of Ardency

Class Actress
Journal of Ardency
(Terrible Records)
Rating: 3.9 of 5


Elizabeth Harper ditched the classic singer-songwriter approach and teamed up with producers Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal; branding their ‘Totally 80s’ electro-pop vehicle, Class Actress. This five-song disc, coming to us exclusively from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor at Terrible Records, is a taste of what’s in store for the full-length promised later this year—and what a lingering and intoxicating nip it is.

Attuning her enchantingly cool delivery all throughout her debut, Journal of Ardency, Harper evokes a metropolitan vibe underlined by slinky synth modulations and threshed disco beats. “Careful What You Say” throbs like a club banger, but Harper’s distressed lines warn with innocent savvy. She plays the part of the bruised peach so well, in fact, that it intimates that these engineered dance tracks spawned from the unfeigned penmanship of her earlier solo work.

The eponymous selection, second in the play order, is the clincher. The aching humility bleeding out from her as she is imagined strutting along the city street, outside the hotspots and after-hours parties. Harper strikes me as the girl who looks better when she’s not smiling, but instead gazing out from a cold blank stare. The glassed-over look that begs ‘come-hither’ is made hearable on the ricocheting finale “Someone Real”.

Whilst still under the radar, this trio still benefits from the appeal of their captivating mystery. Tossing around somewhere between the sounds of Reverie Sound Revue (see “Let Me Take You Out”) and The Bird and the Bee (“Adolescent Heart”), Class Actress still manages to assert themselves as fresh and unique. If I had my druthers, this short-but-sweet sampler would reflect the direction of pop music to come.

Journal of Ardency - Class Actress

The review posted on ZapTown
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