This is the Polly Scattergood video for "Other Too Endless" taken from her debut album released this week, March 9th on Mute Records. Some of the reviews this week:
"A fantastically dark and unsettling debut. Deceptively light on the ear at first, Polly's curious mixture of the everyday and the fantastic carries a serrated knife-edge. The musical backdrops - odd piano loops, discreet guitars, flutters of synth and adeptly deployed electronic percussion - frame songs in which you can't get away from what Polly emotes. She has set a high-water mark for herself with this debut that she can and surely will surpass. The mind boggles - in a great way - as to exactly what she'll be up to in 10 years time." - NME - 8/10
"Dazzling... one of the year’s most compelling debuts, brimful of vivid confessional lyrics and wild flights of musical fancy. She sounds like a little girl lost, her cute voice carried along by playful pop tunes, but closer listens reveal some deeper, darker, sometimes disturbing undercurrents." - The Sun - ****
"This debut is a slow burning treasure. She shines on the arty piano-pop of Please Don't Touch and I Hate The Way. Could well feature on this years Mercury Prize shortlist." - Daily Mail - ****
"Bunny Club rides a deep-house pulse towards a captivating finale redolent of Soft Cell's low-life synth-pop, and Nitrogen Pink is magnificent: a rocket-powered fantasy alliance between Kate Bush and Neu!" - The Guardian
"Dark and disturbing magic. Singing in a trembling voice, here Kate Bush and Tori Amos are obvious reference points. Her subject matter is more fractious than either, but she's also capable of ethereal, uplifting pop symphonies of extraordinary beauty such as Unforgiving Arms and Nitrogen Pink." - Uncut - ****
"Scattergood's eccentric muse is slightly out of kilter with the times. The sound is lo-fi gothic, acoustic instrumentation, punctuated by PJ Harvey-style electronic beats, and the vocal brings to mind Björk and Kate Bush at their maddest. Not an easy listen, but a bold, brave debut." - Mojo -
"If 2009 is to be the year when arty pop princesses rule, then 22-year-old Essex girl Scattergood should stand proud amongst them. What she lacks in lyrical maturity, she makes up for in heartfelt conviction, channeled through a voice that's by turns, sweet, savage and gut-wrenchingly vulnerable." - Q -
"A full length debut that will speak to anyone who has ever had their heartbroken or felt uncomfortable in their own skin. Despite lyrics a bout growing pains, there is much maturity here, and all the anger and angst is still beautifully genuine. A very memorable first effort and hopefully the beginning of a promising career." - Clash - 7/10
"Her eponymous debut is a compelling, thoroughly digestible nugget of something slightly shiny. This girl's got depth people." - Rock Sound -
Added: March 09, 2009 Runtime: 03:58 Plays: 3,821 Comments: 6
This is the Polly Scattergood video for "Other Too Endless" taken from her debut album released this week, March 9th on Mute Records. Some of the reviews this week:
"A fantastically dark and unsettling debut. Deceptively light on the ear at first, Polly's curious mixture of the everyday and the fantastic carries a serrated knife-edge. The musical backdrops - odd piano loops, discreet guitars, flutters of synth and adeptly deployed electronic percussion - frame songs in which you can't get away from what Polly emotes. She has set a high-water mark for herself with this debut that she can and surely will surpass. The mind boggles - in a great way - as to exactly what she'll be up to in 10 years time." - NME - 8/10
"Dazzling... one of the year’s most compelling debuts, brimful of vivid confessional lyrics and wild flights of musical fancy. She sounds like a little girl lost, her cute voice carried along by playful pop tunes, but closer listens reveal some deeper, darker, sometimes disturbing undercurrents." - The Sun - ****
"This debut is a slow burning treasure. She shines on the arty piano-pop of Please Don't Touch and I Hate The Way. Could well feature on this years Mercury Prize shortlist." - Daily Mail - ****
"Bunny Club rides a deep-house pulse towards a captivating finale redolent of Soft Cell's low-life synth-pop, and Nitrogen Pink is magnificent: a rocket-powered fantasy alliance between Kate Bush and Neu!" - The Guardian
"Dark and disturbing magic. Singing in a trembling voice, here Kate Bush and Tori Amos are obvious reference points. Her subject matter is more fractious than either, but she's also capable of ethereal, uplifting pop symphonies of extraordinary beauty such as Unforgiving Arms and Nitrogen Pink." - Uncut - ****
"Scattergood's eccentric muse is slightly out of kilter with the times. The sound is lo-fi gothic, acoustic instrumentation, punctuated by PJ Harvey-style electronic beats, and the vocal brings to mind Björk and Kate Bush at their maddest. Not an easy listen, but a bold, brave debut." - Mojo -
"If 2009 is to be the year when arty pop princesses rule, then 22-year-old Essex girl Scattergood should stand proud amongst them. What she lacks in lyrical maturity, she makes up for in heartfelt conviction, channeled through a voice that's by turns, sweet, savage and gut-wrenchingly vulnerable." - Q -
"A full length debut that will speak to anyone who has ever had their heartbroken or felt uncomfortable in their own skin. Despite lyrics a bout growing pains, there is much maturity here, and all the anger and angst is still beautifully genuine. A very memorable first effort and hopefully the beginning of a promising career." - Clash - 7/10
"Her eponymous debut is a compelling, thoroughly digestible nugget of something slightly shiny. This girl's got depth people." - Rock Sound -