Sarah Harmer ~ Oh Little Fire

Oh how I missed Sarah Harmer. Her voice is like engine fuel. Five years after her last album, _Oh Little Fire_ feels like refreshing rainfall after a drought. A musical desert filled with overwrought, pretentious artsiness and artificiality. Sarah Harmer's songs feel so natural, so effortless and just plain good like ice cream. It's undeniable, that appealing voice, gliding without so much as a false note and the melodies, instantly memorable. The lack of overthinking does not sound like a mask hiding a lack of complexity. It's simply the confidence of good songwriting. This album is perhaps her most energetic release yet. It has its fair share of acoustic alt country but when they come, it's almost bizarre considering the album's generally crowdpleasing pop rock slant, welcome too because Neko Case gets to do a guesting in the most country song in the lot, "Silverado". But mainly, what I can and tend to listen to in repeat are the intimate bedroom folk of "New Loneliness" and the midtempo bittersweetness of "One Match" and "Washington". Oh Little Fire is an album that could just get better under further analysis. I hope we don't have to wait longer for the next chapter of Harmer's story as one of Canada's best singer songwriters.

1 The Thief

2 Captive

3 New Loneliness

4 One Match

5 Careless

6 Washington

7 Late Bloomer

8 The City

9 Silverado

10 The Marble in Your Eye

11 It Will Sail