It's difficult to know how to frame Hand Me My Bow And Arrow. It seems caught between worlds. It could be described as either an indie-pop record of middling accomplishment or an over-produced folk record with hints of greatness. The sophomore album of Queensland's singer-songwriter Kate Martin, it's a record with two key components – but those components often don't seem to complement each other as much as confuse.
It's largely a conflict between Kate Martin as a songwriter and bandleader. As a songwriter, Martin is clever – her lyrics lively and imaginative, her melodies dreamy without being forgettable and she shows an engaging fondness for the unexpected. As a bandleader, she presides over a delicate, vaguely experimental wall-of-sound of rock instrumentation augmented by bursts of unconventional sounds. Both approaches yield compelling results (Candle Burnin', Wax Drippin' could smash triple j's Hottest 100, The Earth Resonates develops an intriguing set of soundcapes and samples) but they generally don't play nice together. Martin's songwriting is intricate and detail-driven but her sound is vague and expansive – such contrast muddies Hand Me My Bow And Arrow to the point of ambiguity. It's hard to appreciate the songwriting when it's so buried and the soundscapes aren't intricate enough to reward on their own terms.
Hand Me My Bow And Arrow is by no means a bad album. There isn't a bad song on the record and, at its worst, it's quite intriguing. Martin still has a great deal to offer. She just needs to figure out how to present it.
