HANNAH GEORGAS opens for Mother Mother at Kool Haus on Saturday (December 1). See listing. Rating: NNN
The song Elephant on Hannah Georgas’s sophomore album is everything an opening track should be: inviting, arresting, holding promise for what’s to come. Stripped-down and intimate, it finds the Vancouver-based indie pop musician in a vulnerable place, beautifully conveying through her Feist-like vocals uncertainty about a relationship.
The should-we-or-shouldn’t-we relationship theme runs through much of the album, as do the electronic-lite elements that kick in by the second song. Icy synths and motorik drums mix with Georgas’s catchy melodies, often bringing to mind a less aggressive, less dance-floor Metric.
But while there are no obvious missteps, things never quite attain liftoff. The arrangements and lyrics, while solid, fail to thrill. Georgas still seems to be negotiating the area between her folkie singer/songwriter past and her reinvention as an electro-pop chanteuse. She’s well on her way to getting there, though.
Top track: Elephant
