Anyone who lists Depeche Mode and the Eagles as inspirations has something interesting going on. Sarah Pearson has spent six years crafting her debut set, and it's fair to say that she leans much harder into new wave and 80s punk than the Laurel Canyon sound. Her lyrics are much more in line with Kate Bush (another of her professed influences), taking introspective perspectives and finding a wider meaning.

Esspi FAUXstalgia (self-released)

This Capetown native is far more in line with late-80s Britpop than anything people associate with her native land. That's cool. In a way she creates a double echo from her influences and has found a sound that is uniquely her.

The long gestation for this album is hardly unusual; that's the reason most second albums are pale imitation of the debut. I do worry that Esspi might rush to bring out a companion to an album this assured. I hope not. The wait is almost always worth the time spent.

By the way, the title is an idea Esspi thought of to describe the longing for a time never experienced. That brilliantly self-evident term describes these songs inspired by music that was first performed twenty or more years before her birth. I don't know if she has staying power, but Esspi has put out one of the more striking debuts I've heard this year.

Jon Worley