Albertine Sarges’ new album Girl Missing once again demonstrates that there are still artists around that know how to craft exquisite high IQ pop songs as an antidote to the pop-factories relying on AI and algorithm mining. I have been in thrall to Sarges’ music since I heard 2021’s Sticky Fingers, and this new album is another amazing example of how a pop album can have deep roots not just pretty foliage.
The album is made up of thirteen perfect tracks, all self-contained worlds, complex in construction but wonderfully gratifying to listen to. From the gentle pump of bass and acoustic guitar in the title track’s opening bars we get a growing sense of the wonders to come. Vocals tease out unexpected tunes whilst weaving around the song’s solid core and Albertine Sarges’ voice is clear and direct, with the ability to add close harmonies that create the sound of one note from many. She says, “I experimented a lot with different singing styles. Sometimes I’m close and intimate with the microphone; other times I am belting it out. I always recorded my vocals alone, often at night, in our shared studio space in a very unattractive suburb of Berlin, which feels desolate in deep winter.”
There are so many sonic delights packed into the album it’s like an easter egg hunt with more things being revealed with each listen and Sarges says on this release she used more organs and electric pianos and fewer synthesisers alongside the guitar, bass and drums. There are vocal loops at the heart of ‘Motherless Universe’ which create a sense of moving through galaxies; funky ones at that, once the rhythmic guitar kicks in. The sparsely angular bursts of ‘Stand Near Your Fire’ full of grit and riffs, the lightly echoed riff on ‘Blue Lagoon’ with it’s angelic mid-section. ‘Blue Lagoon’ also shows off the exceptional bass playing that holds so many of the songs together and brings to mind the dampened playing of bass maven Carol Kay.
‘Rose of Jericho’ (recorded in 2018 for The Sticky Fingers album ) has the tuneful dexterity of Kate Bush and “the feeling of running gleefully over a mountain pasture, with your arms and heart up high, in praise of the world!”. ‘Reflection’ is filled with early-morning or late-night contemplation, a delicate mix of tremulous acoustic guitar, bass and layered harmonies that are joined by long-bowed strings that tug at your heart. ‘Cocoon’ is lighter-than-air with vocals that swoop around buoyant harmonies and ‘On My Mind’ has the feel of Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album, with its laid-back charm floating on marshmallow splashes of electric piano and the warm breeze of backing vocal harmonies.
‘Friendship’ was inspired by a good friend visiting after a painful break-up. As well as consolation and comfort, tears fell into a cup of coffee that was shared between the two. The phrase “friendship stays” in the chorus is imbued with so much heartfelt power it could be a protection spell. Sarges says “the song is a reminder to take good care of your friendships!” We leave the album on the light and dark pulse of ‘Paris’ and the aquatic feel of ‘Diving’ full of implied bubbles and the kind of pauses that make you feel the contemplative solitude of being deep underwater.
Albertine Sarges creates solid backbones for all of her songs, allowing everything else to swirl around like starlings knowing that there is solid earth to return to. The elements were pieced together over time from works-in-progress, but you wouldn’t know this from the cohesion of the tracks and how well they flow on the album. Many aspects were influenced by loss, so I wonder if the meticulous work that has gone into the album is a way of controlling something in your life when so many other things are out of your control.
There may be some melancholy folded into the album but the overall the feeling is one of optimism. Over fifty listens of Girl Missing since I first heard it and it has never failed to delight me on so many levels. Sarges is as much an artisan as a musician and her understanding of song structure, production and the power and beauty of her own voice is astounding. She doesn’t so much write songs as sculpt them out of marble or paint them using the finest oils and someone should display them in the world’s finest galleries.
Girl Missing is released on Moshi Moshi Records
Albertine Sarge socials: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube
Review by Paul F Cook
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