Gyan - Super fragilistically

Having written songs for or collaborated with anyone from Ricky Martin to Michael Leunig, former 90's popstar Gyan Evans is a bit of an oddity. Now residing in Northern New South Wales, she has ditched her pop consciousness for a startlingly beautiful solo album as Max Easton writes.

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First of all, let's let the elephant out of the bag. Gyan won Starsearch back in the eighties. Fine. Then she sang with Ricky Martin. Okay. So obviously your music snobbery dials are set to eleven and you're considering leaving this page to order a $300 pair of skinny jeans. That's cool, I can understand that, I almost considered it myself until I slipped this CD into the stereo next to my bed and couldn't completely fall asleep until it was finished. From the depths of Livin' La Vida Loca comes a unique and fully rounded album with classical, pop and occasional blues undertones. String sections mingle with oddly mastered vocals while the lyrics proke and prod through strange subject matter from eaten chicken to stalking priests. This is everything you didn't expect from someone you didn't expect it from, and once the dust has settled, it's really quite good.

As if to quell all your fears in one swoop, Gyan kicks off Superfragilistically with dancing piano's and that aforementioned strangely mastered vocal. On the album's opener Fowl Play and later with Priest, Gyan's haunting voice sits in a place far out front of the music played behind it. Each breath and jostle of her mouth is almost clearer than the lines she's singing herself and it, very strangely and indescribably, acts to almost sit right on your ear. It's a haunting, strange and somewhat beautiful result that's just one of many curiosities embedded within this bizarre album.

Tracks like the swooping I Love & Let You Go continue to paint this haunted, gothic, almost cold horror-like atmosphere that occasionally appears throughout the album. This is offset against the sweetened and uplifting tracks like the technological star-crossed lovers story of WWW. or the breathy Holly Throsby-esque Superfragilistically. The result of these yin and yang moments is truly interesting. In a world where it feels as though female singer songwriters are just constantly polishing each others work, it's incredibly refreshing to hear something as unique as this record. It's full of quirky, curious touches which please as well as puzzle and there's very little that can be faulted hiding within it.

It's not the perfect album though, some tracks are forgettable, but they're never outwardly bad. Superfragilistically isn't something you want to be playing on your car stereo late at night on a long drive, but it's something that would certainly bode well on your bedside table. The understated harmonies and sweetened vocal make this the perfect lullaby album, one which has equal validity in the study of its many oddities as there is in falling mindlessly asleep with it playing in the background. For someone who might be easily looked past due to her popstar beginnings, Gyan shows just how good a songwriter she truly is. With phenomenal backing by all sorts of orchestral movements, Superfragilistically is an album that comes strongly recommended for anyone after a record that haunts on a lonely night.

Gyan's 'Superfragilistically' is out now.