Picastro
Become Secret
Monotreme Records

Picastro's new album is firmly grounded in a slow, sometimes dreamy mood. Singer Liz Hysen has a sweet yet urgent voice that fist the music well.

"A Dune a Doom" is ominously treading piano and darkly intoned melody to see it though. "Split Head" is sedate, a folksy mood accomplished nicely as the band are playing slowly. Hysen mutters a dark tale in an utterly artless way, as if numbed by terror. It's Rasputina without the Victorian fetish or Low without ever hitting the hymnal mode.

"Neva" is well put together, Hysen accompanied by a sparse yet lovely tune. She recalls White Chalk-era P.J Harvey here, haunted and fragile. It's a song a ghost might sing to rock itself to sleep with after a satisfying haunting. "The Stiff" ends the journey with carefully strummed guitar and satisfyingly bleak tune.

Picastro won't be the band you play at parties, unless you're planning to see some spirits off to the next world.

Copyright © 2010 Anna Maria Stjärnell