Sarah Blasko makes albums that condense her world view and emotional outlook into an illustrative and immersive song cycle; track by track she dictates her own reality. Understandably, she was tentative on her 2004 debut The Overture And The Underscore but 2006’s What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have is a genuine masterpiece, using the fierceness of frontier life to address questions of pursuit and control.  As Day Follows Night, by contrast, is a record focused on a solitary, contemporary life.  “I don’t want another partner,” she declares on the cinematic Ennio Morricone-influenced All I Want.  Yet distance doesn’t restrict Blasko: the singer-songwriter’s watchfulness is intimate, influenced by the crafted, jazzy percussion that underpins tracks such as the cabaret tracks such as the cabaret stomp of No Turning Back.  The songs favour direct speech over metaphor, which combines with a leaner sound to put greater emphasis on her astutely recorded vocal performances.  As Day Follows Night is a startling work, redrawing the bounaries of Blasko’s music, but is also something of a revelation from an already much-value artist.

Craig Mathieson