JULIA STONE
SIXTY SUMMERS
BMG
On her third solo album, her first without her brother Angus in almost a decade, Julia Stone turns her back on the indie-folk with which she’s most associated in favour of what she calls simply ‘fun’. It’s a sometimes-persuasive transformation, possibly because her characteristically breathy, girlish voice – so intimate in the past – also suits glossy pop unexpectedly well. Sixty Summers’ dub undercurrent, for instance, is sprinkled with sparkling 80s guitars in a fashion not unlike Cyndi Lauper’s, and, though Stone’s vocals are at times needlessly Vocodered, Lauper can also be heard in the slower Unreal.