As their name might indicate, the Cadbury sisters promise a sweet intensity from their music, with its three part female harmonies and emphasis on plucked acoustic melodies. However, repeated listens to their new EP reveals a pleasingly dark bitterness, recorded in a stark, intimate fashion. Opening track ‘Milk’, (which has already been remixed by Blur’s Dave Rowntree and has an appropriately woody music video accompanying it,) sets the blue print for the majority of the tracks – a delicate first verse that steadily builds to something more epic. This is most successful in final track ‘Fire’, where the introduction of crunchy electric guitars (also used forcefully in ‘Milk’) draws proceedings satisfying close.
Lyrically, the sisters explore women’s experiences – in ‘Milk’, it’s a girl growing ‘old before young’ and in ‘Lolita’, a girl taking off her clothes (presumably to find fame), and in the others, a relationship breaking apart. It’s the tracks sung from a first-person perspective that have the real grit behind them – there’s something more personal and punchy to them.
The instrumentation is used wisely, never overtaking the sisters’ voices, but providing the extra energy where needed. There’s moments when it all builds to a mighty climax, such as in my personal highlight ‘Quarry’, or ‘You Choose’ but never quite edges over the top – but I have the feeling the live experience of the band goes beyond the this, and on listening to this, I’d be keen to see them on stage. All in all it’s a very promising release – bring on the full LP.
Words: Frankie Ward