- In a New State is a slow stroll through Emma Russack’s world, a couple of chords at a time. The Melbourne based musician’s third full length is a wistful, autobiographical recollection of her day to day, sharply communicating her stories through a haze. Each track feels like it’s being delivered through a tunnel, and we’re on the receiving end of Russack’s echoey and distant whisperings.

Third time round her sound is hard to pin down, further obscuring the country, folk and blues inflections across her previous albums. In a New State is more of a mood than a genre; it’s at least one violin away from being alt-country with just enough reverb to produce grey clouds above Russack’s persistently sleepy delivery. She let’s the weight of her words air themselves in the negative space she created with producer John Lee (Beaches, The Ocean Party). The whole album is based off a demo of opening track Cottesloe, which works well because you can settle into the sparse guitar and bedtime story narrative it spins you. The arrangements across In a New State are a slimmed down version of 2014’s You Changed Me, which weren’t padded out by any definition. The harmonies and occasional jazz band are absent this time around, and the guitar which walks in lonely lockstep with Russack’s voice is unencumbered by fluffy pedals.

Even the perkier moments like Another Chance are built on the same foundations of simple finger picked guitar, an egg shaker and muted bassline. It feels like an acoustic mutation of Summer Flake’s more upbeat tracks, with the same lyrical beckoning and unforced vocal melody. Russack adds to the ginger-bread trail of places she’s attached some part of herself to, with an ode to a tranquil day at Cottesloe beach in Western Australia with collaborator and tour partner Soda Eaves and a distorted bluesy account of a trip back to her hometown Narooma, New South Wales.

Slow it down, strip it back is the motto here. In a New State is Russack in fine form, saying so much without actually saying much at all, creating a beautiful, unembellished and gritty landscape of what’s around her; past and present.  

- Grace Pashley.