Sound Republic: Album Reviews

Hello Satellites - Hello Satellites

Share |

By Simon Jones
28 September 2010

Album Rating: 4.5 / 5

Related Artists

Hello Satellites

Related Albums

Hello Satellites

Melbourne indie label Two Bright Lakes have brought out some of the best local releases of 2010. Following on from great albums by Otouto and Seagull, Hello Satellites is no exception and brings a great offering of well-crafted folk songs to the table.

Eva Popov’s second album, and first under new moniker Hello Satellites is everything a sophomore release should be. More layered, upbeat and assured than her debut, Hello Satellites is the natural progression of Popov’s earthy sound. Her sweet vocals draw the listener in, wistful on ballads If I Had a Kite and Pelican, chirpy on Building a Wall and downright whimsical on the childlike singsong Heartbeat Fast as a Rabbit.

Popov credits production whiz Nick Huggins as the album’s ‘Director’ and his fingerprints are all over this release. As with the recent releases of label mates Otouto and Seagull, Huggins has created an enormous space for the Hello Satellites soundscape, a vast gallery in which to hang their arrangements. It’s an effective technique for such well-crafted songs and it brings Popov’s strengths to the fore.

First single, Building A Wall is a prime example. Building from handclaps and synthy jangles to a crescendo of strings and vocals, it’s one of the catchiest local releases of the year (and is accompanied by an equally fun video clip)

Elsewhere How to Break Gravity takes the sparseness to a whole new level, the ghostly track sounding like it was recorded in an abandoned church in the middle of a forest. Yet Popov’s vocals bring warmness to this and every other track on the album, inviting the listener in out of the cold. Anyone looking to escape the sappy overproduced pop flooding the airwaves at the moment need look no further than this album, it's the perfect antitode.

Share |