USB Album Review

Sophie Burbery, also known as Little Bark first stepped into the spotlight with her debut Hope is Rubbery in 2011. She performs with a 4 piece band, featuring 2 synthesists, a drummer (using an electronic kit), a bassist and vocals. Now she brings her album titled USB into the music scene.

This album is beautifully constructed with exceptional sound engineering. The album is an amalgamation of electronic beats, synthesizers, atmospheric ambience and catchy lyrics. The album captures the sound of 80-esuqe electro-pop, making it very enjoyable to listen to, with it being a sound not generally created in the current music industry. She directs, writes and produces everything herself and I think it is wonderful how engaged she is with the advancement of her music and her career.

This album is full of energy with each song bringing another emotion, another image to the forefront, with the title of the album and tracks focusing on technological aspects, which I found very intriguing and clever, as Little Bark’s album is all about using technology to her advantage.

I thought I would mention a few of my favourites. The first one is titled YouTube Me and is an instrumental, it is highly atmospheric and uses electronic beats to heighten it, which made for interesting listening.

Secondly, Arpreggiator, which I believe to be a quite haunting tune, with the rise and falls of sounds in the intro. It reminded me very much of Madonna when she was at her best in the 1980s. The addition of the male voice was also interesting to hear.

Transform the Beat I found to be a very emotional piece, it is another instrumental with the sounds of occasional notes sung. It is a beautifully constructed song and I think my favourite in the album. On a side note, if they could, I strongly believe the songs titled Poly and Walk Away should be placed in a 80s movie… Dirty Dancing anyone?

This album is not something I would generally listen to, but I am glad I did get the opportunity. It is a well thought and put together album, with some catchy tunes that once I heard a few times, I was humming along to as I made my tea!