| · PJ Harvey-Lite
Canadian indie music suffers from the same problem that Canadian cinema does. It's all very atmospheric and experimental, and nobody quite understands it. Songs for Car Commercials doesn’t remind me of something, it reminds me of everything. Priya Thomas mimics Kate Bush, Sinead O'Connor, Radiohead and PJ Harvey so well that it becomes unsettling in that Thomas doesn’t showcase her influences but offers a dead-on imitation instead.
The troubling thing is, I really like Thomas's voice. It's beautiful, rich and comforting in that same laid-back way that a person who doesn't know they are pretty becomes even more gorgeous. The problem is with the music, which seems to be almost an afterthought and completely separate from Thomas's voice. The lap-top songstress uses heavy sampling in her compositions. Spaceship blips, Bollywood-inspired tracks and bluegrass guitar distract attention away from her expressive voice. Thomas is obviously very talented and hopefully she can find a balance between influence and originality by honoring the types of music she likes and then finding a way to surpass them.
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