Having already brightened our summer with her live performance and debut single "Sunday Afternoon" it was always going to be interesting to see if the follow up EP "Coming Home At Dawn" would be be able to maintain Katie Kittermaster's initial momentum, the answer is most decidedly yes, as it reveals new levels in her songwriting ability and a overall singing.
The EP opens with the single "Sunday Afternoon", which if anything sounds even better now then when initially heard a month or so ago, it is the multiple hooks, on this almost folky pop song that incessantly nag away you until you surrender to its charms, as well as Katie's endearing delivery that make it irresistible.
Any preconceptions of what this EP might be like are immediately blown away as early as the second song, "You Needed Me", a piano based ballad, which acts as the backing to allow Katie to deliver an apology to the other half of a past relationship. Possibly a answerphone message or a note it is a message she's unable to deliver face to face. The apology itself comes in the chorus and is somewhat heatrbreaking
"i'm sorry for the mess I made, I'm sorry for things i said, I'm sorry that i let you down..." sung with real feeling, this is undoubtedly heartfelt. The simple piano track is gradually added to with some subtle strings and gentle backing vocals which build in layers. There is even a final plea for the smallest possibility that "you and me will be friends eventually" but it comes with the realisation that this may be a forlorn hope.
"Kaleidoscope" is perhaps the most explicit big production number of the EP, again dealing with the after effects of a break up from the perspective that just as you think you are might be over someone, a fraction of a memory comes back,leaving Katie "looking for a cure that I won't find". The nature of the production does give Katie a chance to show a different side to her singing but overall it maybe leaves the song seeming just a little less intimate and personal even though the lyrics clearly convey that it is.
If "You Needed Me" was an apology to someone for her actions in a previous relationship, then "Disaster" is a note of apology to herself for taking so long to realise the failings in another. Both are beautiful gently sung ballads but this one spells out in painstaking detail the level of hurt felt and the type of person she was dealing with, a "devil behind those brown eyes" who was actually "pretty mean". It tracerses the journet of seeing someone who as first seems "Heaven sent" beofre final "Seeing the real you" and realising that this is probably serial behaviour. The sustained notes in the chorus reveal an a beautiful singing voice, and are so delicate they would bring tears to a statue. it does end up on a positive note with the affirming statement "I'm worthy of more than a man like you"
The final track "T Shirt" deals with the inevitable downside of the unwanted break up, and the adjustment that needs to made. It's a song tapping into a universal feeling of love, evoking the feeling of a person from wearing or smelling an item that they have once worn. A gentle pop song of hope that things can be rekindled, married with the knowledge that the more that time passes the less likely this will be and that perhaps "I'm not the one".
It's an impressive debut EP, and importantly Katie seems to be linked up with a production team that seem to be able to provide a sympathetic backing to her ideas that enables her to be shown at her best.
With a comprehensive UK tour supporting Lucy Spraggan forthcoming - why not also support this upcoming talent by contributing to her Kickstarter campaign - Details to be found here http://kck.st/2mmhTOY