Singer-songwriter Sarah Bethe Nelson explores the dark 60s garage folk rock style with her debut album, published on Burger Records. Alike Kandle, she delivers great catchy songs that have a somber twist, like Impossible Love. A lot of 60s feel is brought by Rickenbacker-type guitars and simple rhythmic.

The musician from San Francisco doesn’t stick to one single angle. She’s way more mysterious once the half of her record is reached. Snake Snake is a slower and stranger song, with xylophones supporting her softly-spoken voice. Paying is a slower song, where vocal harmonies take a larger place, a step closer to bands like Grand Archives.

Three days after her official album launch, Sarah Bethe Nelson was playing at the Echoplex, in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Sarah Bethe Nelson doesn’t have grit like, say, PJ Harvey or charisma like Aimee Mann. Her voice is thin and she doesn’t seem to be able to reach higher ground. In upper beat songs like Fast Moving Clouds, the reverb effect in her voice, à la Mazzy Star, prevents her to reach a crisper vocal sound that might have suited this song better, almost like Blondie’s rockier songs.

But still, in the lo-fi dark electric folk genre, her album is good and has many good songs we can enjoy. A good start in the music business.

SARAH BETHE NELSON
Fast Moving Clouds
(Burger Records, 2015)

-Genre: electric folk rock
-In the same style as Kandle, Mazzy Star

Follow the artist via their Facebook page
Listen to videos on the label’s YouTube channel

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About The Author

Mélomane invétéré plongeant dans tous les genres et époques, Nicolas Pelletier a publié 6 000 critiques de disques et concerts depuis 1991, dont 1100 chez emoragei magazine et 600 sur enMusique.ca, dont il a également été le rédacteur en chef de 2009 à 2014. Il publie "Les perles rares et grands crus de la musique" en 2013, lance le site RREVERB en 2014, et devient stratège numérique des radios de Bell Média en 2015, participant au lancement de la marque iHeartRadio au Canada en 2016. Il dirige maintenant la stratégie numérique d'ICI Musique, la radio musicale de Radio-Canada.