Album Review: Sarah Blasko - I Awake

If the tortured face on her album artwork is anything to go by, waking up for Sarah Blasko probably isn't as simple as jumping out of bed and hitting the shower. Following on from 2009's award-winning As Day Follows Night and last year's Seeker Lover Keeper releases, Blasko's fourth individual album, I Awake, is a true child of the world, recorded in Stockholm and Bulgaria and partly written in the UK seaside city of Brighton during last year's northern winter. And, like many coastal towns during those chilly months, the music here is often raw and weather-beaten, but also beautiful in its bleakness.

Opening with the rolling drums of I Awake, Blasko's voice is soon introduced sounding confident, assured and in control as she starts exploring the theme of what it's like to 'wake up' and realise that one's own doubts are crippling a person and destroying their ambitions. Along with overcoming a 'fearful life', as she does in epic closer, Not Yet, Blasko's characters also find the courage to lash out at selfish ex-lovers in the slinky but angry God Fearing, while the gorgeous piano ballad, Illusory Light, is all about being honest to oneself. Another piano piece, An Oyster, A Pearl, is sure to become a live singalong favourite while the imaginatively-arranged sections recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra are serious highlights, particularly as the orchestra crashes in midway through An Arrow.

It's all still pretty heavy going, though, and I sometimes feel Blasko would benefit from doing a 'happier' song or possibly even turning the confessional lyrics into more of a story. But this is still some seriously classy stuff that just enhances Blasko's already fine reputation.