Album Review: Diane Birch - Speak A Little Louder

Diane Birch is a time lord – how else could she bend 45 minutes into an eternity of retro synth-pop? Packaged in with the standard feature of rumbling Afro-rhythms and vapid instrumentation, Speak A Little Louder is little more than another stale pastiche.

There are some big, upbeat tracks like Love And War and Tell Me Tomorrow that are actually really cool, and when Birch lets loose, the vocal melodies are decidedly powerful. All told though, this is a record you buy when you need a last minute Mother’s Day gift, except you’re passive aggressive and don’t really like your mother.