Martha Ffion started her musical career as an acoustic guitar-toting folk singer, but after a short time she set that direction aside and went electric, hooking up with a band of like-minded musicians and landing on a sound that splits the difference between the noisy noise pop swoon of
Alvvays and the lush, neo-Brill Building melancholy of
Camera Obscura. Her debut album,
Sunday Best, features the singer crooning and crying through a batch of hooky, sweet, and sometimes defiant pop songs that are never less than lovely and sometimes make the jump to transcendent. Ballads like the swaying "We Make Do" and "Missing You" prove that
Ffion can carry a slow song with her hearty vocals, and songs like "Punch Drunk" and "Record Sleeves" show that she's equally adept at belting it out a bit over loud, twanging guitars and the rhythm section's energetic drive. Where the record really comes together is on the midtempo songs that marry the punch of the rockers with the emotions of the ballads and let
Ffion show off the range and depth of her writing and vocals. The swaying "Take Your Name" is a girl group update with a lyrical upgrade, "Beach" and "Lead Balloon" are rollicking tunes that call to mind the smart strut of
Kirsty MacColl, and "Record Sleeves" is the album's pick to click -- a snappy bit of jangling noise pop that hits all the right nostalgic buttons and has a drop-dead dramatic chorus and
Ffion's most assured vocal. By the middle of the album it's clear that
Ffion made the right choice to go electric; by the end, she's positioned herself as one of guitar pop's most promising practitioners 2018 style. Anyone looking to fill the gaps until the next
Alvvays record should check
Ffion out. ~ Tim Sendra