Known as much for their debut single ‘Bridges’ as they are for sharing Lorde’s producer Joel Little, sibling duo Caleb and Georgia Nott’s first self-titled EP arrives at a time when industry tastemakers are gagging for more in spades from the land of the long white cloud. So it’s a shame that the group’s first single, which reached an impressive number eight in the NZ chart, serves as the sole highlight of this otherwise unmemorable EP.
Opener ‘Never Gonna Change’ holds bursts of lyrical promise but ultimately drowns in its final third when a pulsing trip-hop beat bypasses synth-pop and gives way to Eurotrash-style Electro, a sound that is madly revisited in the EP’s closing song, ‘Coattails’. Harmonies that blueprint The XX are a delight in ‘Pretty Things’ - a light, joyous leap in the right direction as is ‘Sleep Baby Sleep’, albeit both fairly forgettable ones. The Notts shine once more in ‘Taking You There’ as Georgia’s sublime vocal pirouettes perfectly on a delicate guitar riff before the record reaches a thumping dance climax.
A decent first crack of the whip that will see this band go far so long as they continue to take influence from their own superior hemisphere when comes to crafting their sound.
