Art School Girlfriend - Soft Landing

So feather-light is Polly Mackey’s touch – whether her breathy vocal delivery or the manner by which she weaves disparate sounds between each other – that it’s quite possible for ‘Soft Landing’ to pass by without leaving much of a trace. Whether that’s a positive or negative is up to personal taste, to be sure, but for those who tend to seek the kind of “personal euphoria” the multi-instrumentalist suggests her second full-length is akin to, there’s a good chance it’ll aid. With trip-hop indebted beats and a consistent rise-and-fall, it’s akin to ‘90s Ibiza chillout if delivered via headphones, solo instead of within post-club community. The bleeps and Polly’s barely-there whisper collide to (almost) euphoria on ‘Heaven Hanging Low’, while the record’s greatest aural impact comes via ‘The Weeks’, its layered guitars building with ambition. A record which clearly finds contentment in its sonic solitude.