Like tonight’s headliner, Amali Ward has an acting background as well as musical chops. With a recent appearance on Australian soap institution Neighbours, she has a CV that also includes stints on Australian idol and support slots for the likes of Seal.
Her music is an easy listening style that splits the difference between soul and top 40, with lyrics that are very much slice of life portraits, taking in drunken, lecherous guys (‘Upside Down’), inane jobs (‘First Plane Out Of Here’) and casual sexism (‘Back In Time’).
Her voice is her strongest asset, capable of delivering autobiographical stories with a real confidence, or crooning through Frank Ocean’s brilliantly poignant modern classic, ‘Thinking About You’.
Playing her first Australian shows in four years, Lenka’s relentlessly sunny music is a major departure from her stint as frontwoman for the beautifully atmospheric Decoder Ring.
Across three consistent records she’s carved out a niche making carefully crafted and intimate starry-eyed pop, creating songs so bright and sugary they must rank among the most happy tunes in popular music.
She’s a major star internationally. Her Facebook page boasts over two million followers and her army of fans even have their own term (Sugarbombs) a la Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters.
Surprisingly though, she remains something of a hidden gem in her home country despite her music being radio-friendly and easy to embrace.
Her lower profile here means we get to see her not in a stadium, but the intimate and elegant surrounds of The Vanguard. Her band is squeezed onto a stage decorated with whimsical plants, like illustrations from a children’s book, and includes violin, guitar, drums and Wurlitzer keyboards to round the songs out with a lush, tasteful sound.
The warm ‘Nothing Here But Love’, a song with a generosity of spirit and pop smarts, begins the wide-ranging set. It’s something of a greatest hits performance, including a number of cuts from her self-titled debut record like the typically bright ‘Trouble Is A Friend’.
With her breathy coo of a voice an instantly comforting instrument, there’s a soothing, lullaby feel to much of her work. It’s perhaps unsurprising then that the nursery rhyme-like ‘After The Winter’ was written for this very purpose, being penned as a message of reassurance for her young son.
As pop music has got darker and weirder in recent years, Lenka has stuck to her vision of pop as whimsical and full of wonder. There’s not a lot of darkness in her music (even ‘Monsters’ is a cute pop song), but there are plenty of hooks and winning optimism.
‘Roll With The Punches’ sees her recruit her father, trumpeter Jiri Kripac, to the stage. It’s a real family affair tonight with her mother also doing merch table duties.
The set also includes a new song ‘Believe’, written for an Alfonso Cuaron (director of Gravity and Y TU Mama Tambien) project to be released in 2014. It’s a typically sparkly affair, reminiscent of some of Regina Spektor’s poppier moments.
A remarkably consistent songwriter, there is no weak link in the set. The highlight is perhaps the delirious, unabashed pop of ‘Heart Skips A Beat’, which gradually builds through restrained verses into a dayglo euphoric chorus.
The set wraps up with ‘Everything At Once’, which sounds like a Dr Seuss book turned into a pop song, and the first song of her first record, the sunshine pop of ‘The Show’. Here she successfully coaxes an adoring crowd into a singalong of the playful refrain.
It would be easy dismiss Lenka’s music as pop confections, but that would also be a disservice to her considerable talents. It’s music to elevate your mood, and there aren’t many more worthwhile aims than that.
