As a makeup artist and skin decorator, Natalie Sharp transforms people's faces and bodies; as
Lone Taxidermist, she gives pop music a radical makeover. On her debut album,
Trifle, she builds on the promise of her 2013 single "S.L.A.G.," blending punk, glam rock, and synth pop into bold songs with an extra cheekiness thanks to her crisply enunciated vocals. Her provocative mix of highbrow diction and lowbrow sounds recalls similarly subversive divas like
Peaches,
Planningtorock's Janine Rostron, and
the Slits' Ari Up, but Sharp never feels bound to those influences as she beckons listeners into her wild world.
Trifle is most inviting when she focuses on the pop side of her music, as on "Bijoux Boy"'s gritty synth punk or "When the Water's Cold," a slice of disco that's anything but slick. "Knicker Elastic" is another standout that manages to be dangerous, sexy, and funny ("Little does he know there's a crime scene in my pants/Call CSI, it's the end of romance") at the same time. Later on
Trifle, Sharp delves into different sounds. The eerie interlude "Nowhere" boasts a melody that could be from a centuries-old folk song, while a pair of funky, trance-inducing dancefloor collages ("Cornflakes" and "Hammered in Homebase") bring the album to a close. Throughout it all, Sharp's charisma is unmistakable, and makes
Trifle an entertaining, distinctive debut. ~ Heather Phares