Nataly Dawn
Album: How I Knew Her
Label: Nonesuch
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.natalydawnmusic.com

Nataly's generally known as one half of the oblique (in the sense of record-label-resistant) San Francisco-based duo Pomplamoose, whose own music has so far been nigh impossible to source on the medium of CD (in spite of its massive exposure on video and internet media). Now, through the innovative Kickstarter funding process, she's finally made it onto a major-label list for the purpose of showcasing her quirky, largely autobiographical and introspective songwriting, and with the help of longtime partner Jack Conte has created a strangely alluring collection, three of whose 12 songs (Please Don't Scream, Leslie and Araceli) have already been available both on YouTube and in EP form since December last year.

Familiarity won't breed contempt, however, for there's a sometimes thorny challenge for the unwary listener lurking beneath the chirpy, bright and almost carnivalesque musical settings that often rather belie the distinctly inward-looking nature of Nataly's lyrics. Even after several weeks of fairly close acquaintance, it's not always proved easy to reconcile these elements - although in this context one can understand Nataly's infatuation with the music of Tom Waits and just how much it has influenced her own music, especially in the use of oddball textures and skewed instrumentation. Disc opener Araceli employs banjo, violin, cello and kitchen-sink percussion to convey the rustic antiquity of its mythological allegory and subject, contrasting with the carefree fairground ambience of Leslie and the more ominous, low-key questioning of the ruminative title song. But from the insistent Jupiter cello ostinatos of Long Running Joke to the resigned delicacy of Counting Down, the cheeky clappy Caroline and the insouciant cabaret of Still A Believer to the faux-nostalgic swooning echoey ballroom strings of Why Did You Marry?, there's constant interest in the creative instrumental settings, which were recorded by a full band in just the one room, yet (weirdly) sound less cluttered or claustrophobic than merely a touch heady.

Nataly's vocal style is idiosyncratic yet accessible, savvy yet coolly cute and often quite childlike but not twee or sugary, and imparts an attractive waywardness that manages to stay the right side of listenable. But even more overtly attention-grabbing of all, perhaps, are the delinquent electric numbers: the smoky revenge-grunge of Even Steven and the gutsy garage-rockabilly of Please Don't Scream with its killer guitar solo (Ryan Lerman). And although Jack's production skills are a key element in the success of the album, there's an equally compelling pair of tracks where Nataly's plaintive vocal has only a bare acoustic guitar accompaniment: the thoughtful Back To The Barracks and the intimate, if petulant I Just Wanted You To Get Old. Here just as much, Nataly bares her soul, and it's hard not to respond.

David Kidman