Kate Miller-Heidke – Curiouser

Excuse me Marina, step aside Gaga, out of the way Cyndi, there’s a new entrant in the quirky field and she’s already taking Australia by storm. Having made her name with that Facebook song (Are You F**king Kidding Me?) Australian born Kate Miller-Heidke might be classically trained, but she’s already making her name known in the pop arena. Nominated for a range of ARIA Awards last year, a slot in this year’s Lilith Fair line up and Caught in the Crowd having reached number 3 in Australia after is use in the hit show Neighbours, Kate only has Europe left to conquer and if her second album Curiouser is anything to go by, it could happen any time soon.

The parallels to other artists are ongoing, at times she hints as Kate Bush and Gwen Stefani, whilst at others there’s shades of Regina Spektor, nevertheless Kate seems to create a style of her own manipulating her vocals and styles to culminate in an album with heaps of variation. Caught In The Crowd, is a heartrending ode to childhood, fully deserving of its International Songwriting Competition award, which Kate scoped with album collaborator, band member and husband, Keir Nuttall. Meanwhile opening track The One Thing I Know is an instant club classic, filled with retro beats.

The album ranges from I Like You Better When You’re Not Around, which seems like a potential answer to Ida Maria’s I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked to the romantic Last Day On Earth. Elsewhere, Politics in Space has a distinctive rhythm that will no doubt get audiences clapping along, whilst Our Song seems poetically understated. It’s fair to say that the dichotomy of Are You F**king Kidding Me? sums up the feel of the whole album, half humorous pop classics and half emotional love ballads, each laced with a distinct hint of Kate’s zest. It’s this which makes it appealing, the unpredictable path that the album takes and variation both within and between each song makes it something of a curiosity and it ultimately leaves you hanging on Kate’s every word wondering what she’ll conjure next.

www.katemillerheidke.com