The idea of change and the fear that accompanies it is one felt by almost everybody at some point in their lives. For Gordi (real name Sophie Payten) however, the Sydney-based vocalist has transformed these universal truths into a solid album. Gordi’s true to home central theme is something that can draw any music fan, regardless of preference, grabbing the attention of her audience from the offset with the track Airplane Bathroom, giving her a fighting chance of bringing more ears to her work.
Although it can be argued that Gordi’s melancholy vocal performance grows stale as the album progresses, it remains a subjective matter as her vocal range shown in the album demonstrates that this artist is no one trick pony. This album is an intimate look at the emotions, ideas and self-reflection of Gordi, which cannot be easy to do in a world where transparency is often used as a weapon against you, something that must be commended here.
Tracks such as the aforementioned Airplane Bathroom, Unready and Extraordinary Life are definitely the high points of this 10 song EP while the songs Sandwiches and Volcanic may not stand up to the high expectations the former have set.
The central theme of this album, along with Gordi’s story of beginning the writing of Our Two Skins on an airplane to Europe, gives the album another step up – everybody loves a good story about how a song was written/titled etc. Gordi’s style of self-reflection and borderline doubt is reminiscent to Northern Irish artist SOAK, which is indeed, a compliment. While Gordi’s style may be a close relative to marmite, it won’t affect your musical pallet to give it a listen and create an opinion from her own words rather than mine.
Gordi – Our Two Skins 6/10*
*highly subjective
Our Two Skins releases this Friday and is available to pre-order here: https://gordi.bandcamp.com/album/our-two-skins
NYUP Music 