After releasing two well-received albums (Wrong Direction in 2013, Before Dawn in 2014) in Greece and supporting live performances by Macy Gray, Jessie Ware, Beirut, Daughter, and Cass McCombs in her hometown of Athens, indie folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Irene Skylakaki moved to London (where she studied music) to further her career. Her UK debut EP Planet was recorded by Danton Supple (Morrissey, Charlie Simpson, The XX, Elbow, Suede, Coldplay, Amy Macdonald) and will be released on 16th March.
“Planet”, the EP’s lead single, offers a promising taste of Skylakaki’s brand of airy, uplifting and sunny introspection. Her music has been compared to Laura Marling or Marika Hackman; you could say that she blends the former’s sense of melodic quietude with the latter’s uptempo and effervescent optimism. “Planet” makes her existential introspection come across like a wistful musing on the shores of a picturesque beach, even though the song’s core sentiment is characterized by an intractable inner dissonance: ‘Is there some other type of planet I could land on/ Different values to rely on/ ‘Cause I’ve been turning into someone/ I am not.'
The song is presented as a free-falling stream of consciousness, beginning and ending with its chorus. In between, Skylakaki laments her inability to be satisfied with life (‘Ain't it annoying?/ Time consuming, self-destroying?/ Never really quite enjoying/ The state I'm in’) while also expressing gratitude for life’s golden moments (‘All this happiness I felt all my life I will remember/ I was lying on your chest and the world was in our hands’). We have all been here before: wishing from her ‘a trace from outer space’ while having to make do with the earth beneath our feet.
