Folk Gem
This gem of a folk EP, released last year, just couldn’t go unreviewed, so it felt right to put a little time aside for this fascinating, wonderful songwriter.
We love DIY, bedroom music and Greta’s work almost defines the genre. Opening track Love Is A begins with her singing about seemingly ordinary things (“I walk into the kitchen”) accompanied by analogue-warped acoustic guitar picking. The highlight of the track is the brilliant little sliding riff that works as a central solo. And how can simple lyrics work so well?
Promise? follows and the track is filled with echoes, as Greta sings about “existential crisis” and creates an atmosphere that wouldn’t be out of place on a long lost folk recording from the 20s. It can’t be, though, as she sings about her sweet friends waiting for Ubers on William St.
The picture these songs paint is so stark it’s almost scary. Ever experience the kind of music that both unsettles and soothes right into your marrow? This does that. Knowing You sounds like she’s writing it on the spot; ad-libbing her thoughts as they arise alongside strange chord changes.
It doesn’t stop on the final track, Girl And A Meadow, which adds some glorious, heartbreaking vocal harmonies. Don’t overlook the guitar work either — it’s deceptively complex and technical, despite the lo-fi production.
There is an air of mystery around Greta Hat that adds to the atmosphere of the EP – listen to it with headphones in a dark room and tell us this isn’t something special. More please, Greta, this is the kind of art that inspires the rest of us to want to create.