Charlotte Eriksson’s got a bunch of dudes locked in her cell. Seriously. She sounds a little too convincing delivering this line, topping it off with a sneering chuckle, and that’s a bit of the problem. Hailing from Sweden and now running her own label in London, young Eriksson and her moniker, the Glass Child, certainly have a story to tell, but you get the creeping thought her message could be told so much better.
The problem here isn’t quite in the actual music. There are harmless hints of early-day Paramore tinged with spindly, gothic progressions, which make listening to the five-song This Is How Ghosts Are Made a somewhat fun and genuine experience. The problem arises with Eriksson herself, unfortunately. Not afraid to show off some powerful pipes, she’s at her best when lowly intoning in opener “Tell the World” and close to grating when soaring over those gothic pop refrains. As a drinking game, counting how many times the Glass Child squeaks while shouting would leave the players far too inebriated to operate a car any distance. It’s not that a Swedish accent doesn’t sound lovely in English; fellow Swede Mikael Ã…kerfeldt’s clean English vocals used in metal band Opeth are exquisite.
During “Insanity”, the pairing of Eriksson’s over-intonation with lyrics about guy troubles that border on parody (“Then I tear them apart/And rip out their heart/And feed ‘em to the sharks”) leaves the listener a bit dazed by how seriously she takes such sentiments. Middle track “Best Part of Me” mixes all the right ingredients of Eriksson’s strengths together, however, producing a powerful pop-rock ballad laced with Nightmare Before Christmas guitar lines and optimistic lyrics.
Here’s hoping the Glass Child refines her sound with age.
Essential Tracks: “Best Part of Me”
