If Laura Carbone is going for the badass female rock sound, she definitely nailed it.
When I set her debut solo album to play, I found myself easily grooving to it with a sense of ease as I continued other tasks bopping my head to the beat. No song in particular grabbed my attention — I appreciated the work as a whole. It’s worth noting early that she has a fantastic voice and cool feminist vibe.
Breaking off from the German electronic punk band Deine Jugend, Carbone debuted her first solo album, Sirens, this Spring. She embarked on her own musical voyage with the help of producer Bonassis, who was a former member of death metal bands Liquido and Pyogenesis.
Laura Carbone — Talented in Two Languages
She told Philthy Mag about transitioning from writing in German to writing her latest venture in English, “I also wanted to express myself in a new musical way. You’re kind of limited when you sing and write in German and I just wanted to have a new blank space which I could be creative with.”
The first track, “Silky Road,” starts out super seductively. At this point, I was ready to dive into her world of slowly unraveling lyrics and melodies. Carbone’s voice is somehow both smooth and a little rough — but just enough to give her an edge.
Toward the middle of the album, around the “Drive By Shooting” track, I started to get an ‘80s pop feel. “Heavy Heavy” grabbed me with its Florence and the Machine influence — whether she intended that, I’m not sure.
A steady back beat seems to be a common theme with Laura Carbone and really drives a lot of the songs forward. While I like this, it also got a bit monotonous at a certain point, which is what made it a little easy to tune out as the album continued.
It picked back up near the close of the album with “Late Night Conversations,” a perfect combination of pop and rock that gets your foot tapping to its ‘90s-inspired songwriting.
Sirens may be her solo debut, but Laura Carbone had a lot of experience to put into it and it pays off.
