SALLY SELTMANN - ‘HEART THAT’S POUNDING’
Published: Music Australia Guide #75, April 2010.
Sally Seltmann
Heart That’s Pounding
****1/2
Shock
Heart That’s Pounding comes from fine songwriting stock. The colour-drenched, lo-fi pop vistas of Sally Seltmann’s debut as New Buffalo, The Last Beautiful Day (2004) and the elegiac piano balladry of 2007’s Somewhere, anywhere saw her lauded as the leader of a new generation of female singer-songwriters. It’s no mistake that one of Seltmann’s songs – 1234, performed by Canadian songstress Feist – became a global hit. Released under her own name, Seltmann’s third album signals a reinvention for the Sydney-raised songstress. This stunning, self-assured piece of pop music is not only her most convincing and maximal, but perhaps her most complex oeuvre to date. From its luminous opener Harmony to My Heartbeat, the record glows with full-bodied arrangements, glimmering organ, synth and percussive dynamics, and some of the most heart-melting vocal melodies you’ll hear. There’s no more striking example than Dream About Change. Indeed, Seltmann has never written a song so vibrant, its circular vocal hook and rattling drums flourishing into a soaring, angelic chorus harmony. That said, the fragile femininity for which Seltmann made her hame is still written all over this record. Sketches like Happy and I Tossed a Coin belie vocal lines so delicate and weightless they could float away. The difference here is that Seltmann seems unafraid to be herself. Where her work as New Buffalo seemed reticent, timid and girlish, Heart That’s Pounding throbs with feeling and expression. Seltmann has created a record that is feminine, romantic and sentimental – but unabashedly, radiantly so.
DAN RULE
