Sophia Knapp -‘Into the Waves’ (Drag City)

It’s funny how you have expectations of how acts on certain labels will sound. It would have been bizarre, for example, if Creation had had a death metal band on their roster, or if Chemikal Underground signed a boy band. Whilst there may be diversity, you have certain expectations…

Which, I suppose, is a rather long-winded way of saying that, being unfamiliar with her previous work, I expected Sophia Knapp’s first solo album to sound a little more…leftfield, I guess. What with it coming out on Drag City, an’ all. Because the feel of the record is a million miles away from the likes of Royal Trux et al, and far more like a more MOR Stevie Nicks trying to make a seventies soul record with eighties production. It is music which seems to exist in a realm where much of the music of the last thirty or forty years simply does not figure. Sure, therethere are numerous artists who draw on the past, but they add something to the mix.

Songs like ‘Glasses High’ and ‘Into The Waves’ are perfectly pleasant, but while there’s nothing particularly wrong with them, there’s nothing about them to make them stand out amongst so many submissions I receive. This album is fine as background, but several plays on, it doesn’t reveal any hidden surprises.

**1/2

Into The Waves is out now on Drag City