Wear It Well is the long awaited sophomore release from local folk artist Emily Ulman. It’s a beautifully executed sequence of modern storytelling, although the themes of each rhythmic parable are timeless.
Case in point is the title track, which pairs Ulman’s effeminate and almost adolescent voice with a simple visceral guitar strum. The song’s power lies in its muted emotion, as Ulman aches from a love never known due to an unspoken catastrophe: “Some things I’ll never tell / Some things you can never tell / I wear it well”.
Beyond the minimalism of the title track, Wear It Well is littered with accessible and upbeat songs like the single Scratches, where Ulman’s vocals harmonise with strings. A waltzy rhythm brings the song to a chirpy close, although the lyrics are still a bit dark. Hurricane reminds one of the relaxed swagger that made The Waifs the darlings of the adult contemporary scene in the mid-00s. However, this comparison may be a case of cultural pareidolia, triggered by a strong Australian female voice over uplifting acoustic folk.
Regardless, this is a work of high quality music and storytelling with each song proudly communicated in an Australian voice. The album was partly funded by a Pozible campaign, and therefore Wear It Well is a fine example of crowdsourcing allowing an independent artist to produce a high quality musical document of our time.
BY DAN WATT
