Album Review: Not A Proper Girl

Lyttelton based singer-songwriter Kate Owen has just recorded her first album despite being on the NZ music scene for twenty years. Described as a singer with a “poetic, restrained intensity” the debut album Not A Proper Girl, which has been released by her own label Spin Star Records, showcases Kate’s strong profound vocals.

Not A Proper Girl is twelve tracks of rich warm textured sound incorporating strings with synth and drum machines, almost lending itself at times to lo-fi then turning around to offer up a strong pulsating beat as is the case in the opening track The Void.

There is a definite wistful, dreamy quality to this album even though it is dealing with “themes of isolation and grief”. A faint resemblance to British trip-hop band Portishead can be heard on track eleven Ask The Stars.

The final track, Clean is a culmination of the intense beauty of this album.

A brooding soundscape of emotional storytelling, stripped back to the bare bones of grief and solitude. The pensive almost spectral tone of Not A Proper Girl is delivered impeccably by Owen’s clear haunting vocals. Previously likened to the dream pop sound of Julee Cruise and avant-rock style of PJ Harvey, there is a meditative flow of tracks, each song an original written by Kate.

The album cover and promotional material for Not A Proper Girl is much like the music. Darkness and light.