Liberty Bell

80s Techno Kate

     

I've been a big Kate Miller-Heidke fan since I saw her open for Ben Folds a couple years ago. I thought Curiouser was great, and I'd been waiting for a new album for a while until somehow I completely forgot to check for a few months. To my surprise, Liberty Bell, which, despite the American title, is actually by KMH's side-project Fatty Gets a Stylist (which is the album title in Australia), had been discreetly released. It's difficult to compare to Curiouser, as it doesn't sound like it at all. Gone are Kate's moments of opera (which I loved on her other albums), and instead we get a more nasally 80s pop voice (which isn't necessarily a bad thing- actually it works quite well). In the case of Devil's in the Details, she hardly sings at all. I'm still in relistening mode, but my favorites right now are Holloway Park, which is a great mid-tempo song, and The Flasher, which is a fun up-tempo song in the vein of Motorscooter from Curiouser.