Alexandra Savior shot to the limelight with the help of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner on her debut atmospheric desert rock album Belladonna of Sadness in 2017, produced by Turner and longstanding producer, James Ford.
The album lyrically focuses around love, jealousy, cheating and the ‘Mirage’ of the music industry; “I sing songs about whatever the fuck they want”. Her beautifully seductive voice is accompanied perfectly by the use of dark sounding melancholy chords and effects alongside lightly dusted reverb and trem, and some cleverly used synth from time to time. Lead guitar is used from beginning to end to really fill out each song and give it that consistent album feel.
Belladonna of Sadness itself gives off vibes of an intrinsically perfect middle ground between AM by Arctic Monkeys and Everything you’ve Come to Expect by The Last Shadow Puppets. Coincidentally, ‘Miracle Aligner’ the second song to feature on the album ‘Everything you’ve Come to Expect’, and the most streamed The Last Shadow Puppets song was co-written by Savior and was originally cut from her debut album.
It’s a wholly beautiful and artistic album, something that resonates well with Savior who said in a 2016 interview that “the thing you should focus on the most is just the art”. The collection reaches the epitome of jealous-girlfriend rock, while also having the eerie smoky haze of a cabaret lounge.
We also see artsy and often hazy lo-fi visuals accompanying the singles from her albums, with the film to accompany the track ‘Mirage’, for example, bringing out a beautiful 50s cabaret vibe. The film is beautiful and dark as its own entity; however, the music utterly brings it together, totally demonstrating Savior’s visionary style.
Earlier this year Savior released her second studio album The Archer, produced by Sam Cohen, who has worked with artists such as Shakira, Norah Jones and Pavo Pavo. It’s a total mixed bag of tracks, lacking a consistent theme. Many of her songs take a new style with some serious 50s, 60s, and 70s psychedelic influences; these are particularly apparent in the drums of ‘Send Her Back’, and ‘The Phantom’ which have some real Beatle-esque themes to them.
Despite this Savior still plays homage to her debut album throughout, both in the seducing ways of her voice, and in the dark crunch guitar, and feedback sounds that you may hear in songs such as ‘But You’ and ‘Saving Grace’. It’s apparent that Alexandra has been working on her vocal range since the release of Belladonna, as perfectly demonstrated in ‘Saving Grace’ in which she really
stretches to those higher notes that she seemingly avoided in her debut album.
She has been getting more and more creative with her use of synth throughout the album, particularly in ‘Howl’ which really shows just how much Savior is growing as an artist. Just as she is growing creatively, she doesn’t forget the importance of simplicity and mindfulness which is demonstrated in the opening song of the album, ‘Soft Currents’; a beautiful song about being comfortable with the future being determined by the mistakes that you have made. This song has to be my personal favourite as it really isolates Savior’s vocals, showing that she really can send
shivers down your spine.
Alexandra Savior is already skyrocketing to the top of female headed indie rock, and
constantly developing her style. A really exciting artist to keep your eye on and seriously an artist for you if you’re a fan of Tranquillity-Era Arctic Monkeys and Lana Del Rey.
TWELVE INCH 