Aldous Harding – „The Barrel“ (Official Video)
As for her singing, Harding seems to have honed her instrument and matured as a performer – the inflections of her voice give shape and color to every line, and her choices never seem forced. Though the songs certainly have more or less traditional structures – they have verses and choruses, after all – they sound more like a series of meditations than they do folk or pop songs. Precisely by opting for simplicity and tautness, the arrangements (both instrumental and vocal) lend a greater depth to her phrasing than a more explicitly experimental approach might have been able to allow. As her voice makes a silky slither toward the higher notes on “Zoo Eyes,” the song lifts to a blissful state, coaxing the listener into a secret garden populated by the ideas Harding has planted there.
(Dylan Mintanari, Spectrum Culture)