GABRIELLE APLIN
DEAR HAPPY
NEVER FADE RECORDS
It’s odd that Gabrielle Aplin’s stated that part of her inspiration for her third album was how “People who are really consuming music… don’t care about all the other stuff; they just want some songs.” After all, with its sweet-toothed production – which largely renounces English Rain’s polite folk and Light Up The Dark’s guitars for a more sterile electronic aesthetic whose flamboyance can be distracting – Dear Happy sometimes seems desperate to fit in with contemporary pop trends. True, opener Until The Sun Comes Up starts in refreshingly intimate fashion, her breath moistening the microphone, but soon she’s overwhelmed by overcomplicated digital edits, while similarly restless tricks – perhaps intended to echo Prince’s Kiss – disturb Like You Say You Do, though to be fair its drabness invites diversion. When the songs take the strain, though – as she predicted – things run more smoothly. Just One Of Those Days is, at its heart, a piano ballad, its silken melody spun out classily, its climax brief enough to leave one wanting, while My Mistake’s growing arrangement reflects the journey she’s undertaken in recent years, her empowering assertion that “If I falter/ Well at least it’s my mistake” a worthy staple of self-help manuals. That’ll help alleviate any criticism. WW