The listener gets the sense that they’ve been invited into a precious, hidden corner of interiority-a sunset-warm sanctuary where authenticity matters more than execution. Her performance is notably imperfect, hushed and slightly hoarse, the high notes cracking like a hot glass doused in cold water. “ When the sun sets in my bedroom/Feels like I’m inside a flower/Feels like I’m inside my eyelids,” she sings, testing the upper end of her vocal register. But on this standout track, Saalfield recounts a moment of private wonder with clarity and restraint.
From a lyrical standpoint, Hiatus Kaiyote songs can sometimes feel choked with abstract imagery, threatening to cross the thin boundary between compelling psychedelia and woo-woo nonsense. But it’s dotted with moments of softness and simplicity that feel revelatory and new-like “Red Room,” a warm, deliberate tune driven by a single repeated verse. Mood Valiant is overflowing with the dazzling polyrhythms and finger-breaking basslines that helped catapult the band to fame. After a long, worthwhile wait, the genre-warping Australian four-piece have delivered a lush, vulnerable record that rivals the rest of their formidable catalog. “I know what it is I meant to do with my life,” she told the New York Times, “and I’m going to do it as long as I’m here.” On Mood Valiant, she and her bandmates channel this hard-earned certainty, displaying the confidence of artists that are all-in on their craft. She’s now cancer-free, but facing mortality primed her to dive back into music with renewed purpose. After recording Needle Paw, a pared-down solo effort brimming with soulful covers, Saalfield was diagnosed with breast cancer, the same disease that killed her mother. The six years since the release of the sprawling, critically acclaimed Choose Your Weapon has been anything but uneventful for Hiatus Kaiyote-especially for vocalist Naomi “Nai Palm” Saalfield.
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