CD Reviews

The Good Natured | Skeleton

Astralwerks (2011)

By MICHAEL MAROTTA | September 27, 2011

4.0 Stars

Back in March at the Phoenix's first-ever SXSW showcase, the bill's lone international act, rising UK electro-pop trio the Good Natured, suggested we hadn't heard the last of them. Fast forward to October 11, and we're finally getting a proper release on stateside shores. The seven-song Skeleton EP is a combination of two previous import EPs, sounding already like an immediate best-of, compiling six Good Natured studio tracks and a (throwaway) remix. And as a single unit, it's a remarkable showing. The Good Natured are, essentially, 20-year-old ingénue prodigy Sarah McIntosh, equipped with Horrors hair, a distaste for pantalones, a Siouxsie Sioux obsession, her brother on guitar, and a treasure trove of sexually charged and goth-leaning electronic-pop gems. McIntosh is cute as a button, but her songs, all singles-worthy, are viciously polished and self-aware. From the cold no-wave throb of "Your Body Is a Machine" (choice lyrics: "Narcissism is overwhelming/Vanity is quite exhausting/Self indulgent, hedonistic/Blame it all, on your upbringing") to the mystical wind-chime synth torrent of "Be My Animal," McIntosh is already crashing the dance floors of nightclubs she can't yet legally enter. This could be the emergence of the next great new-pop diva.

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