Album Review: Totally Mild - Her

Elizabeth Mitchell's voice cuts through the air as Totally Mild's second album opens with the pristine Sky.

It's sparse, yet far from ethereal, each element — vocals, backing 'aahs', bass line — traversing its own path as Her is introduced. At odds with most of the rest of the record, it's a striking track that could soundtrack a David Lynch film as easily as it could fill the sonic space of a smoky club.

From there, the Melbourne band works a slow-jam kind of indie-pop, walking a fine line that sits somewhere between the clean, jangly sound of Real Estate and the lo-fi, DIY ethic of Dick Diver or Courtney Barnett. Nowhere is this more pronounced than on Working Like A Crow, where an occasional guitar distortion contradicts moments where the track almost comes to a complete stop.

Despite some strong slower songs, Her's best moments come when the band sticks to a perkier tempo such as From One Another and the angular Today Tonight (the latter featuring an array of quirky percussive taps and an elusive structure). Down Together completes the album, acting as a matching bookend to Sky and ensuring Her is a solid stepping stone in the Totally Mild story.