Someone New

A Canadian musician who settled in Montreal to pursue recording as a singer/songwriter with a distinctly artful approach, Helena Deland drew the interest of Luminelle Recordings (Fat Possum/House Arrest) with her early EPs. Her full-length debut, Someone New, expands on the intimate, exploratory sounds of her earlier work, taking the form of a 13-song set with subtly shifting sounds and structures. Opener Someone New introduces Delands gentle, youthful voice and distracted demeanor, at first over a drone that eventually falls on- and off-pitch. Just before the one-minute mark, the song picks up keys, a rhythmic guitar pattern, and muffled drums to establish a tempo, while Delands surrealistic ruminations continue (If things go my way/Ill stay in this room/Where tonight I want to lay/Kissing someone new/With a familiar face/ I cant replace). The song settles into something outright catchy, though the occasional unexpected chord progression and details like disappearing bass keep things off-kilter. Later, the more-insistent Dog incorporates hip-hop beats and distortion, while Comfort, Edge adopts a sultry, R&B-indebted strategy. The latter also plays liberally with the edit and mix, including alternate vocal takes and various understated instrumental interjections. More-experimental tracks include the serpentine Fruit Pie and minimalist Smoking at the Gas Station (I need to get out of the house today/To try my face out on strangers), as well as the strings-and-guitar instrumental The Walk Home. The album closes with the hushed Fill the Rooms (with music), a track with eerie multi-tracked vocals and harp-like arpeggiated guitar. Throughout Someone New, on top of its hypnotic mix of the strange and familiar, Delands vulnerable voice helps make her self-conscious, searching commentaries all the more engrossing. ~ Marcy Donelson