Gillian‘s frontlady Kym Hawkins’s vocal phrasing revisits the style of 80’s icons Lene Lovitch and Missing Person’s Dale Bozzio as much as modern counterparts Gwen Stefani of No Doubt and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. While the joyous pop-funk groove of opening track “Eau to Be” stomps to clever lyrical word play, it’s the ultimate hook “we play our danger game, we found our danger fame, how did we get into this life?” that will stick in your head for days. Their new EP’s “Strange Candy"’s title track “Strange Candy” merges electronic pulses and rock guitar hooks with Hawkins’ deliberate enunciation. Slower track “Sue My Mood” wades into the copyright law debate (an interestingly rare subject for a rock song!) suggesting there should be limits on what can be litigated regarding creative control – check out the video here. “Radio Clock” returns to faster tempos, relying on an angular jazz-funk style with tandem male-female vocals. The song was inspired by the novel Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, as was following track “Windfall,” describing a win win situation with the lyrics “we both got high and we both got laid.” Final track “House Boat” (also inspired by that now must-read book) has Kym singing tragic hero fantasy lyrics like “brave warrior, raise your sword” with a stylized accent and cascading structure reminiscent of Liz Fraser’s work with The Cocteau Twins. The Deli is exclusively streaming Gillian’s new EP below. – Dave Cromwell
