If her previous albums, Chaos Before Conformity and Queen of Nothing, showcased a young artist playing blues with a rocky edge, her latest release definitely flips the balance, Fast Paced & Freakish is an unabashed rock song. As a teaser for her third album, Out From Under, it makes an excellent calling card and to have three well received albums at such an age is credit to her talents but it also means that journalists like myself can stop talking about how young she is and just talk about what she has achieved. Sorry.
Fast Paced & Freakish is modern rock at its finest, a blend of classic nostalgia and alternative forward thinking. And as well as the deft guitar deliveries she has a voice which covers a lot of ground, mellow and seductive for the most part but able to kick it up a gear when required and always perfectly controlled.
If rock and roll needs a strong female focal point to help music leave the dark ages and become a lot more enlightened, a Samantha Fish type figure for the low-slung guitar set, then Erin Coburn gets my vote.
