Jaala: Hard Hold

With Cosima Jaala on lead vocals and guitar, Loretta Wilde on bass, Maria Moles on drums and Nic Lam on guitar, Hard Hold feels like a gateway jazz album, although Jaala have themselves described their sound as “jangling indie rock and proggy art-pop”.

It’s broad in scope, from the rawness of the opening track, ‘Hard Hold’, to the looseness of ‘Lowlands’, to the disjointedness of the funk basslines in ‘War Song’. The influences of improvisational jazz and math rock make themselves known in the seemingly messy arrangements on the album. ‘Order’, the fifth track, feels like the most poppy manifestation on the record.

‘Salt Shaker’ could be mistaken for a soul and groove rendition of a Courtney Barnett song – and that’s not a criticism, perhaps just a reflection of the shared experiences and influences of Australian singer-songwriters and composers.

‘Hymn’ closes the album, wrapping it in a church-like reverie. It’s gentle, it’s sweet, and it’s comfortable territory. Frontwoman Cosima Jaala indulges in a little voice ululation, and it works gorgeously.