Carla dal Forno
Look Up Sharp
Release Date: Oct 4, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Forced Exposure
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Album Review: Look Up Sharp by Carla dal Forno
Great, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Carla dal Forno seems to have very little interest in being knowable. With 2016's You Know What It's Like, Forno immediately established a musical niche all her own, one that, as tiresome as it may be to claim, does indeed defy easy classification. With the patience and innate glumness of post-punk, she layered synths and ambient sounds to craft a relatable, calming arena.
Based on rating 8/10
Carla dal Forno knows just how to transcend the human experience through her haunting, dream-pop sound. The London, UK-based musician hasn't strayed too far from her DIY roots. With slightly more enhanced production and clear vocals, Look Up Sharp is a refurbished version of dal Forno's style. Dal Forno's first studio album, You Know What It's Like, was embellished with a dark mood, muffled vocals and eerie beats. This second is not much different, only more enhanced and truly showing off dal Forno as a strong vocalist. "No Trace ….
Based on rating 7.5/10
Autumn is the most charged of the seasons, and the most melancholy. As English novelist Kate Atkinson wrote in Human Croquet, the air can feel laden with "an aromatic shadow… the fragrance of last year's apples and the smell of the insides of very old books with a base note of dead, wet rose-petals." This same haze is conjured in almost everything recorded by London-via-Australia artist Carla dal Forno. A multi-instrumentalist and detail-obsessive, she records albums that, were they images, would be heavy with fog and sepia.
Based on rating 7/10
Breaking away from the dubby abstractions of her group F ingers, Australian singer/songwriter Carla dal Forno made her solo debut in 2016 with You Know What It's Like, a magnificent album of ambient pop tunes that prompted comparisons to obscure names like Kendra Smith and In Gowan Ring. Following two EPs, including a 2018 tour cassette that included covers of songs by the B-52s and Lana Del Rey, dal Forno's second album contains some of her most direct compositions, with clearer vocals and more upfront melodies. While still sparse and haunting, this album doesn't feel as detached, and dal Forno's sentiments aren't as ambiguous as they were before.
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