Sprinter
Torres
(Partisan)
Three stars
Given that Mackenzie "Torres" Scott is prone to calling herself "a Christ-following mystic" and proclaiming Johnny Cash as her style icon, it's perhaps surprising that the 24-year-old Nashville native's music is inspired more by 1990s alt-rock than Old Testament gravitas. Indeed, Sprinter seems to be proof positive that everything does indeed come in cycles in music. The presence of Portishead's Adrian Utley and PJ Harvey's producer, Rob Ellis, on this second album helps to transport you to a bizarre mid-Atlantic head space somewhere between Tennessee and a Bristol bedsit. Whatever the geography, however, Scott's ear for a lyrical sound bite is strong here, pouring out her heart via her morose, almost-deadpan delivery over guitar lines by turns fuzzy, lushly arranged and minimal. Perhaps the most startling example is the skeletal closing track The Exchange, inspired by Scott's real-life adoption as a baby. "I'm afraid to see my heroes age/ I'm afraid of disintegration," she intones, with a solitary vulnerability that stops you in your tracks. Suffice to say Sprinter isn't a cheery listen, particularly from one so young.
aworkman@thenational.ae
