Bertie Blackman - Black (Album)

Black is the second album from Sydney singer-songwriter Bertie Blackman. Best known, by me at least, for her amazing debut single ‘Dirty Jeans’ of a couple of years ago. The first thing you’ll notice about Bertie Blackman’s music is that her voice is gorgeous – it’s soulful, breathy and seductive with a hint (sometimes more) of something gritty and menacing lurking underneath. What’s more, you get the sense that she’s fully aware of the allure in her sultry tones and as a result her vocals are delivered with an unwavering confidence. A voice like that deserves to be shown off and that is exactly what Black is all about. The vocals are given the starring role and room to move, while the other instruments are cast in supporting roles (or merely extras). For the most part the songs are left uncluttered – without a raft of extra instruments vying for attention. Instead the songs (‘One Day’ and ‘Take Me Away’ for example) are built from just drums, bass, strummed electric guitars with the occasional keyboard embellishment here and there. This leaves plenty of space for Blackman’s voice to set the tone for the tracks and the album as a whole. The singles taken from the album, which have already received considerable airplay, – ‘Hold Me Close’, ‘Television’ and ‘You Kill Me’ – prove that Blackman is up to the task and can deliver a dangerously catchy melody.

Through most of the album the vocals have a restrained tension that adds to their appeal, however, this does become a little repetitive on songs like ‘Don’t Give It Away’ which fall flat. The highlights come when Bertie stretches her vocal chords. On ‘You kill Me’ and ‘Rats’ where she lets loose with that grittiness I mentioned earlier and becomes a tough rock-chick while on ‘One Day’ and ‘Take Me Away’ she becomes the pop princess and lets her melodies shine.

Unfortunately, too often the instrumental side of Black slips into MOR rock territory and sounds strangely dated – as if it belongs in the late 90’s. ‘Don’t Give It Away’ and ‘Take Me Away’ in particular suffer from this musical mediocrity with soft rock guitars and reverb soaked drums. Tracks like ‘One Day’ and ‘Fast Bitch’, however, put more energy into the music as well as complimenting Blackman’s vocals to great effect. On the other hand, album closer ‘Last Song’ finds the vocals stripped back to a whispered lament and the arrangement takes a similar stripped back approach with just a barely-there picked guitar that perfectly flatters the most evocative vocals on the album.

Black is a solid album with a lot of rewarding moments, but unfortunately it doesn’t find Bertie Blackman reaching her full potential… yet.

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