Review

Review

Album of the Week: Katy J Pearson – Sound Of The Morning

The beloved Bristol singer-songwriter builds on the success of her craft with seeming ease.

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Katy J Pearson’s 2020 debut Return came at just the right time. Buoyed by the freedom of having her own project after major label tensions ran her sibling duo Ardyn into the ground, though she still writes and plays with her brother, the Bristol-based songwriter seemed to let her earnest and beaming songwriting rip just as we all needed a lift. Anyone lucky enough to have seen Pearson live since then has been in for a treat.

It’s for this reason her rise from hotly-tipped to Heavenly-priority has been so definitive, and yet her second album Sound Of The Morning continues where its predecessor left off, without the influence of any pressure or need to shake things up. Play them consecutively, and Return‘s sleepy closing track, ‘Waiting For The Day’, blends into ‘The Sound Of The Morning’ in the way that night and day seem seamless, but look close enough and the thread is the very same nylon-stringed guitar. Its a cute detail, but goes a long way to explain the coherence in Pearson’s craft.

Katy J Pearson - Talk Over Town (Official Video)

From the off, there’s a return of the euphoric folk-rock blasts in the likes of lead single ‘Talk Over Town’ and ‘The Riverbed’ – a song so devilishly moreish it must have taken some might to hold back until release day. There also a bite and curious moodiness to the likes of ‘Confession’ and ‘Alligator’, while ‘Game Of Cards’ imagines what disco would sound like in the hands of Fleetwood Mac.

As tracks like the album’s mid-point ‘The Hour’ show, there’s ultimately little about Sound Of The Morning that doesn’t demand repeated listening; the timbre of Pearson’s quavering vocals that carry melodies carved somehow from both traditional folk and pop.

Sound of the Morning is out Friday 8 July on Heavenly Recordings. Catch Katy at Latitude and on tour in September here.