Pitch Feather are husband and wife Chuan and Alberta Leong from Singapore and craft their indie music in the comfort of their own home, sometimes with friends, pets and humans alike, participating as audience or as accompanying instrumentalists (no the pets don’t play any instruments!). With their debut album Mountains and Tides, the couple take us on a ride through different faces of indie, from Folk to Pop via Rock as a parallel to the mountains and tides we go through in our live’s journey.
A favourite track on the album is Elderflower Fall. The kind of Celtic vibrato that the singer layers over the lyrics takes the listener into some folk long ago yet the sound is acoustically modern and lyrically timeless. It is that same voice (with help from great instrumentation and arrangements) that holds together the whole album as one, adapting to each genre while retaining its light stamp and offering to the audience a successful rendition of each genre performed.
There is definitely something for everyone, all lifted by good instrumentation, arrangements and production. You can wallow in the Folk feel in favourite Elderflower fall, join in the lightness and fun of Usual Day where Alberta’s lovely vocals are a perfect match. Some nostalgia is entertained in a couple of Blondie-like rock tracks Wish I could and especially Lavender girl (love the surprising ending) while Saints, the reprise of When the saints go marching in lyrics and rhythmic (at least in the beginning) is transposed to its own new melody and just works. The pop ballad The Forgotten Man reminds of the US big song productions without their almost compulsory vocal belting and over-vocalising. Alberta (the vocalist) contents herself with serving us the melody on a bed of simplicity sometimes appropriately covered with a heartfelt film of light tremolo and vibrato that keep the album authentic and this particular song melancholic. The Painter’s Symphony introduces a grand feeling, setting the tale of a legend, a feeling that continues in The Odyssey especially in the pre-chorus chord changes and the awesome guitar riff.
This accomplished album is both enjoyed as a background set and as more forefront music, yet my heart goes back to the Elderflower Fall, music, lyrics and performance equally. And if sometimes the music reminds me of Blondie and sometimes Six Pence None The Richer, it still goes back to Pitch Feather with the peculiarity of Alberta’s light voice easily surfing on different genres and music borrowing from beyond its shores.