Four years after showcasing primarily Australian talent on her guest-packed 2020 outing Don’t Sleep, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Annika Schmarsel takes her talents on the road with her globetrotting third album as Alice Ivy. There are some familiar local voices—including Mallrat and The Teskey Brothers’ Josh Teskey—that Schmarsel invited to her own Melbourne studio once lockdown had lifted, but after that she jetted off to LA, New York and London for international sessions that hadn’t been possible during the pandemic. The results are sonically diverse but uniformly pleasing to the ear, starting with Mayer Hawthorne’s stunning first-take vocals on the retro disco romance of opener “Howlin’ at the New Moon” and Låpsley’s impactful presence on the slower and weightier “Popstar”. Schmarsel turns in impressive lead vocals herself on “Wildlife” and “Dandelion”, while, elsewhere, she gets strong work indeed out of her collaborators. Dual vocals from Kah-Lo and BJ the Chicago Kid on “Criminal” radiate with Schmarsel’s fondness for both classic soul and analogue recording gear. North Carolina’s chlothegod similarly channels 1990s rap and neo-soul on “Smile” and Amsterdam artist GANGS OF KIN provides dreamy swagger to the closing “Rat Race”. Despite all the genre shifts and multitude of voices heard here, Do What Makes You Happy displays real emotional consistency—thanks to every individual track ringing absolutely true.
- 2020
- Boo Seeka
- Tia Gostelow
- Eves Karydas