Just last week, I wrote about an old JOVM mainstay, the Gold Coast, Australia-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Emily Hamilton, whose solo recording project San Mei began humbly as a bedroom recording project; but during the past three years, Hamilton has seen attention and praise from several major media outlets, including NME, Indie Shuffle, NYLON and Triple J, as well as this site — and in turn, Hamilton has seen a growing national and international profile. Now, as you may recall, “Until You Feel Good,” the first single off her forthcoming EP, Necessary was produced by Konstantin Kersting, who has worked with The Belligerents, WAAX, and Tia Gostelow managed to be a radical change in sonic direction, as her lilting and coquettish vocals were paired with an organic arrangement of fuzzy Brit Pop and shoegazer-like power chords, a propulsive groove, along with a soaring hook. And while being radio friendly, the song manages to evoke a complex array of emotions — desire and longing, frustration and the sense of something being unresolved, along with some self-assured and ambitious songwriting.
The EP’s second and latest track, EP title track “Necessary” sounds as though it were influenced by A Storm in Heaven and A Northern Soul-era The Verve, as Hamilton pairs a rousingly anthemic hook with layers upon layers of pedal effected guitars and thundering drumming in what may arguably be one of Hamilton’s most swaggering, self-assured singles she’s released to date, while continuing to reveal some of her most ambitious songwriting as well.
