Sounds like…

A future old crooner with modern-day problems.

The review

There is a dusty resignation to Danika and her music on the surface. Her new EP ‘When Love Comes’ seems focused on trust and things that break it. Underneath her low key pissed off eye-rolling attitude hides some excellent melodies and a lot of building blocks to give the don’t care illusion.

Take ‘For Me’ as an example. It is a brooding muted electric guitar and hi-hat trickle ballad that sounds sunk and deflated. Yet the melody itself has a buccaneer sway to it with layers of muted guitar to give its broken edge. Elsewhere ‘Sweet Mellow D’ and ‘Suit of Armour’ have lone ranger struts to them. Add in some beautiful harp/zither arrangements with the downplayed aggression of ‘If You Call My Name’ and actually you have a carefully crafted rustic shed of sound. It is for this reason when I hear of Danika and this EP, I think of Sarah Blasko. Whilst Sarah is more classic in her songwriting, Danika is a jagged cut from the same cloth. She can do plinky desert folk as she shows in the rustic minimalism of ‘Old Man’ but she’d rather get bitter instead. Danika does use a vinyl old static production throughout. It suggests not all in bitter and sad and the closing track ‘when love comes’ provides vintage strings and a cosy crooner hug.

Anyone looking for a rootsy folk artist who wants to wade in sadness and muted numbness should take a listen to Danika. I hope she explores this broken folk style further in the future. When she merges it with her future crooner classic folk moments, it creates something unique and curious. Long may that continue.

Recommended track: Sweet Mellow D

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