Anya Anastasia - Mothership (Self Release) [Alt-Pop]

Anya Anastasia is back in the blog (get used to her) with her latest debut album teaser and new single "Mothership", and I'm happy to report that this globe-gazing Adelaide resident continues to delight.

The track says hello to the world with a cosmic electronic and submerged cello wave, Anastasia wasting no time in responding with her ode to motherhood, morality, Mars, and, unless I'm metaphorically mistaken, water; and let's face it, Mars aside, lyrical themes don't come much more important than those.

There's a dreamy pop purity to her vocals, no effects needed for them to orbit the subtly inventive musicianship. Satomi Ohnishi provides a sparse rhythmic skeleton on which Anastasia hangs her warm yet insistent guitar looping, egged on by Lucinda Machin's similarly stripped-back cello. So far, so dreamy pop, but then, Anastasia craftily switches into acoustic Afro-guitar mode so naturally that only the world music aware will probably notice, and that takes genuine craft. And so the song continues its merry, yet existential reflecting way; somehow managing to delight the ethereal pop lovers, satiate the deep listeners and break down geographical and cultural barriers - that's quite the feat, even before the plugged-in desert blues finale, that again tiptoes rather than bounds, into view, cements her compositional inventiveness and obvious appreciation for the motherland.

Quite why her Spotify monthly listeners are only in the hundreds rather than tens of thousands is quite the mystery.

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Playlist Companion

Find Anastasia in the Slow Alt-Pop Playlist.