It’s been four years since Sophie Koh’s second album, All Shook Up, and since then she’s decided to synthesise her life. Well, musically speaking anyway.
The Melbourne based singer-songwriter has had a slight evolution in her sound, but the core experience is still very much the same. While the electronica present attempts to create a beguiling atmosphere, Oh My Garden floats along with a nonchalant pace that never deviates from second gear.
It’s a great leap forward production-wise, but the electronica here is tame, even on ‘Top to Bottom”s prominent synth is still fairly generic. Lyrically, the track falters like a poor incantation of a young singer from the Disney channel, as she sings; “gimme a little bit of somethin’/I want you from top to bottom.” Early single ‘Lo-fi’ is plagued by similar problems, Koh attempts to make a quirky dance track, but lacks edge.
Where Koh’s songwriting really shines is when the singer opens up to her audience. “You can never fix what’s broken/I can never change the way I am,” she sings on the stand-out track; ‘I Understand’. While on ‘Somewhere,’accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, the singer sounds more at home than she does with distorted beats backing her.
Oh My Garden doesn’t go far enough to successfully launch Koh into the indie pop side of her career. The pace and quirk is too restrained to really capture your attention. It all sounds pleasant, but that’s precisely the problem – we’ve had that experience already. Perhaps Koh might want to look towards some of her more wacky contemporaries for inspiration.
– Corey Tonkin
