Modern Woman - Johnny’s Dreamworld

With a live reputation that stretches back to pre-pandemic times, that this debut from London-based Modern Woman carries little of the trappings many debuts fall into is of scant surprise: even without the heft of a back catalogue to lean on, ‘Johnny’s Dreamworld’ manages to meander through its patchwork collection of styles, textures and sounds like an artist with multiple releases in their rear-view mirror. Tied together by its focal point, the curiously evocative and often soaring vocal of original ‘modern woman’, Sophie Harris, there may be a slight hint of knowingly tapping into the full breadth of their creative gamut across the record, but in delivery it suggests more a case of never wanting to tie themselves – or the album as a whole – down. This in itself is typified by ‘Fork/Heart’, where its verses find Sophie channelling Kate Bush, her voice floating above the song’s otherwise standard post-punk instrumentation before the song’s choruses take a side-step.

With special mentions to evocative closer ‘The Garden’, where a soft piano and sparkly synth sounds underpin Sophie’s gliding vocal, and ‘Killing A Dog’, which channels ‘OK Computer’-era Radiohead in its crashout, it’s ‘Dashboard Mary’ that’s the pinnacle here. It’s epic in the classic sense, with an eventual push after a restrained beginning; and hints at ‘80s pop balladry, with its use of call-and-response backing vocals and a refrain that’s both fully immediate, and makes use of Sophie’s ability to fuse song and wail to create a full emotional tug.