Soko - I Thought I Was An Alien

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 28 / 2 / 2012

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French singer/songwriter Soko (born Stéphanie Sokolinski) has been writing and releasing songs for a number of years, having gained a number omr hit in Denmark in 2007 (with her song ‘I’ll Kill Her’) and playing gigs with the likes of MIA, Daniel Johnston and Kate Nash, as well as collaborating with The Go! Team and Cornershop. In 2009 she, however, took a hiatus from her musical career to focus on acting (she has been in a number of French films and television programs, even winning a César Award for her troubles). Last year though, she returned to her songwriting and pulled enough new material out of the bag to release her debut full-length album, 'I Thought I Was an Alien'. Soko’s sound is stripped back and often melancholy, and often personal to the point of making the listener feel like a voyeur; but that is exactly what makes the album so affecting. Sokolinski drifts from winsome quirkiness on tracks like ’I Just Want To Make It New With You’ to heartbreaking fragility on ‘I’ve Been Alone Too Long’ and ‘Treat Your Woman Right’. Soko’s lyrics often focus on the less jolly aspects of life (from time to time in fact, they focus on death), and the song titles are often illustrative of that (‘Don’t You Touch Me’, ‘Destruction of the Disgusting Ugly Hate’, ‘We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow’) and listening through 'I Thought I Was An Alien' is probably not the best idea if you are feeling down already (unless you really want to wallow in it, which can be nice every now and then). At fiftrrn tracks, it could also be a bit long to have such a despondent mood, but there are some absolutely brilliant tracks on here, including the title track, ‘First Love Never Dies’, ‘How Are You’ and the achingly beautiful ‘No More Home, No More Love’ which gave me goose bumps on first listen. As first albums go, Soko’s debut is very strong indeed, although it’s perhaps best taken in smaller portions due to its sombre tone. Hopefully she won’t be going on hiatus again anytime soon, as I’m eager to hear what she will come up with for her follow-up record.

Track Listing:-

1 I Just Want To Make It New With You
2 I Thought I Was An Alien
3 People Always Look Better In The Sun (Part 1)
4 We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow
5 No More Home, No More Love
6 For Marlon
7 First Love Never Die
8 Treat Your Woman Right
9 How Are You
10 Don't You Touch Me
11 Destruction Of The Disgusting Ugly Hate
12 Happy Hippie Birthday
13 I I've Been Alone Too Long
14 Why Don't You Eat Me Now You Can
15 You Have A Power On Me

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/soko
https://twitter.com/sokothecat
https://www.instagram.com/sokothecat/
http://www.s-o-k-o.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEge-JK1bZZQLYkLRQyOxiA
https://plus.google.com/112770001762598770126

Label Links:-

https://instagram.com/becausemusic
http://becausemusic.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/becausemusic
https://www.facebook.com/BecauseMusic
http://www.because.tv/

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