Since 2001, English singer and songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor has established a legacy as one of our most celebrated contemporary disco divas. Pivoting from the indie rock of her former band Theaudeince, Ellis-Bextor found her voice in a dizzying mix of nu-disco, French touch house, and electronic pop, equipped with an arsenal of club hits like Muder On The Dancefloor and Groovejet that would define the sound of that early 2000’s decade. Since then, she’s been inching back toward the indie pop rock of her early career, finding space to explore her abilities as a songwriter through more heartfelt subject matter and a folkier approach. Beginning with 2014’s Wanderlust and culminating with 2016’s acclaimed Familia, this is an Ellis-Bextor less concerned with groovejetting and more invested in storytelling.
For this journey, she’s found a creative partner in Ed Harcourt, whose production on those albums is responsible for ushering in Ellis-Bextor’s current phase of artistry. Several years and one greatest hits compilation later, they continue this trajectory on Eliss-Bextor’s latest album HANA, but weave touches of her disco legacy throughout the album’s mellower aesthetic. A Thousand Orchards opens the album with a grandiose ballad, replete with triumphant piano chords and swelling strings, anchored by a twisting modular synth arpeggio. Hearing In Colour works along a subtle four on the floor, accented with shimmering chimes and xylophone chords, growing darker and more epic as the song grows in what’s one of HANA’s surefire highlights. Followed by the sepia washed trip-hop and dubby groove of Broken Toy, tracks like these best display HANA’s potential, which is otherwise diluted by pop rock songs that, like the album’s weeaboo inspiration, feel inconsequential to the whole. There’s something less distinct about the syrupy 80’s power ballad of Until The Wheels Fall Off or the tropey country leaning Reflections than HANA’s best tracks, which strike a balance between Ellis-Bextor singer-songwriter and her disco diva past.
In some sense, HANA is the completion of a trilogy started by Ellis-Bextor and Harcourt with 2014’s Wanderlust, an expedition that’s mostly smoothed out Ellis-Bextor’s edges in favour of a more adult contemporary approach. Though brimming with classic and fresh ideas for Ellis-Bextor’s pop, there’s something about HANA that almost plays it too safe. Its best moments embrace the camp drama that Eliss-Bextor grasps so naturally from her work in disco, unashamedly attacking clichés with reverence, as is the case with first single Breaking the Circle. But these moments feel too far apart on an album that’s mostly filled with serviceable easy listening that too often threatens to murder the dancefloor.
Listen to Hearing In Colour from HANA below.
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