In her latest album Clichés, rising star Sharl explores the angles and diameter of the wide range of experiences of love. Following the release of her debut album City Lights, Clichés marks a development in song-writing and style for the artist, showcasing a wealth of talent confidence in maintaining her style. The album provides a comprehensive exploration of love, especially in the modern world. In the ten new tracks, love is shown as surface level, to all-consuming; difficult and challenging, to effortless and serene; possessive and cruel, to assuring and comforting.
This positive healing capacity of love is captured in the titular song Clichés. The punchy percussion and strong beat mirrors the tension and growing butterflies in this realisation of mutual feelings, accompanied by confident spoken verses captures this quiet confidence of the spark in a developing relationship. No Other melts bright brass instruments with strong backing bass and drum line to create a vibrant fairytale depiction of falling entirely in love. This darker, opposite facet of love is found in Changed Too Much, delving into this deeper song where toxicity and regret post-relationship when the warped image of new love becomes clear. Whereas Find Me gives a haunting, more melancholy portrayal of feelings manifesting in different ways, yet entirely unable to let go and move on. Evaporated, however, depicts the slow falling out of love or realisation of the difficulty of moving on as things change.
Sharl is proving to be an up-and-coming indie pop princess with this latest development. As a classically trained musician, the strong vocals for her raw and heartfelt lyrics come as no surprise, blending over a mix of captivating melodies and electro pop features sparkling throughout. The talented singer-songwriter has already received merit from the International Songwriting Competition in reaching the semi-finals, as well as having performed main stage at the Virgin Australia AFL Footy Festival. The anticipation for her next artistic evolution is palpable, and we eagerly await her future developments.