On her debut album, Cape Town based soul-pop artist Kristi Lowe positions herself in the same lineage as Norah Jones or Katie Melua – pre-Swiftian singer-songwriter women who turn tears into treffers. Much like her foremothers, Lowe writes in a sort of cinema-verité modality, allowing her thoughts to flow like a freshly opened San Pellegrino across backdrops of smooth jazz, piano driven soft rock, and bluesy neo-soul.
This is easy listening – not only in style, but in substance. On Being A Woman, she performs the lounge singer, turning a monologue on the trials and tribulations of contemporary womanhood into a sort of cabaret. But it’s not immediately clear if this choice is commentary or pantomime – perhaps due in part to Lowe’s lyrics which tread dangerously close to didactic.
But when the style works, it works. The cabaret comes to life best on Narcissist’s Playbook, a deliciously campy yet angsty grunge-jazz hybrid that is one of Lowe’s strongest written tracks on the project. Medicated, which arguably should be first atop the album’s track list, is delivered with the sort of earnest, blue-eyed gusto that made early Adele so memorable, while Time With You flirts with retro surf rock sensibilities that recall Sabrina Carpenter, with Lowe writing a pop track solid enough to rival Espresso.
A Glimpse Into Mind really finds its feet on its second half, with these tracks demonstrating a charmingly affable point of view that feels absent from the album’s top end. In this sense, it succeeds as a debut – showcasing the multiplicities of Lowe’s potential, including her greatest strengths and weaknesses. No doubt she will hone in on the former – this artist is seriously dedicated to her craft, and watching her grow is going to feel as satisfying as those tiny bubbles in a glass of San Pellegrino.
