★★★☆☆
Acoustic folk charmers are pretty much the go for duo Little Georgia’s debut album, recorded live in a farmhouse on the coast of Victoria.
But there are two exceptions. The first is the opening track ‘Intro’. Sure, it’s a pleasant enough song filled with sprightly strums and distant vocal exercises, but with only another seven tracks to follow it up, a two-minute-and-35-second introduction seems a tad excessive.
Get past this and you’re hurled into bare emotion. Standouts include ‘Emily’, which carries a dreamy guitar tone, and lead single ‘Forget Me’, a pivotal moment with a significantly darker vibe and the muffled and pessimistic vocals of the duo’s female half, Ashleigh Mannix. The end statement of, “When I die I’ll find another road”,captures the sentiment of the whole song perfectly.
‘California’ is another downplayed affair with sparse strums and Mannix’s counterpart Justin Carter taking the limelight. However, the second unnecessary moment arrives with closing track ‘Heartbreak’. Hitting the three-minute mark of the song, the vocal break repeats itself for a further two minutes, making you wonder exactly why.
These misdemeanours aside, Bootleg is a beautiful collection showcasing gorgeous vocal synergy.
Little Georgia’sBootlegis out now independently.
