Smooth Jazz and Cool Vocals
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

For 'On My Side,' Gordi Channels The Celebratory Spirit Of Jónsi

Australian singer-songwriter Sophie Payten (a.k.a. Gordi) has released a string of gorgeously gloomy covers and singles in the past year or two, from last fall's lonesome take on Bon Iver's "00000 Million" to last month's epic single "Heaven I Know." On August 25, Gordi will finally release her first full-length album, Reservoir.

In that album's new single, "On My Side," she showcases a sound that's more vibrant — even playful — than ever. Amid an arrangement that stomps, soars, claps and coos like Jónsi at his most insistent, Gordi pleads for loyalty while struggling to be heard. (Reservoir has several high-profile contributing producers, among them Sigur Rós' Alex Somers.) And, to hammer home its themes of interdependence and communication, "On My Side" also gets its own lovely video, shot earlier this summer in the California desert near the Salton Sea.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)