Borderline – Wren Astra (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Borderline is the sound of the tried and tested sonic path of the singer-songwriter being upgraded, polished off and made relevant for the contemporary audience. As a format, it has been with us since the first 60’s alt-folkies gathered in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village and the basement bars of Ladbook Grove, although you could make an argument that via the troubadour tradition ist is about a 1000 years older than that. So it was about time it was reimagined for the more discerning and enlightened audience of today.

As the acoustic tones are quickly subsumed by a more driven, band sound and chiming piano sonics, robust beats, propulsive bass lines and rhythmic guitars are joined by almost bubble-gum pop harmonies, you can hear the format being dusted down and reinvented.

But Wren Astra is about more than just sonic reinvention, she is about songs that lyrically resonate with the concerns of today. Her first single You Belong to Me took the subject of domestic violence and oppression and delivered it via a dark soundscape that Nick Cave would have been proud of and the second, Swallow the Noise, followed the same thread from its domestic setting through to the corruption of national leaders.

Add Borderline to the mix and you clearly have an artist capable of giving us both accessible music and poignant messaging. Something very much needed in these times, times when the volume of the dark clouds gathering over society seems only to be matched by music makers desire to ignore the obvious subject matter, keep things light and shift as many “units” as possible.

Well, not any more.