If Sarah Blasko’s third album, As Day Follows Night, placed the songstress at the forefront of the Australian music scene, then the follow up I Awake firmly sees her move above and beyond the local formalities.
It’s already known that Blasko is one of the country’s finest artists and while one can only expect great things from the 36 year-old, she has blown apart whatever expectations anyone may have had, with this being Blasko’s finest release to date.
I Awake continues the folk maturity that she achieved on its predecessor with her lyrics fundamentally keeping her poetic delicacy as a songwriter in tow.
Unquestionably, the step up from Blasko has come as a result of her teaming up with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, supplementing her songs with a heightened sense of emotion rather than over doing it.
Look no further than ‘Here’, where the strings daunt as she exudes her message “A moment mends a broken heart/if you’d only known it from the start.”
The blistering drums of the title track and the piano ballad of ‘An Oyster, A Pearl’ reminds us that Blasko is exquisite no matter how many instruments are backing her.
Just when you thought that she had reached the high point of her career, the singer-songwriter has pushed through boundaries with this masterpiece, confirming that she is in fact a class above the rest.
