Olivia O. - Great Big Nothing EP

Soaked in a raggedy charm, Olivia O.’s solo EP, 'Great Big Nothing', is an endearing one. One half of hype-toting duo Lowertown, she’s opting for a rough’n’ready approach compared to the refined chaos of her home project.

Cutting directly through the hazy cacophony created by the colliding of twanging guitar strings, and innocently hit drums, comes Olivia’s vocals. Delivering a sermon of dealing with growing up and getting older in a fractured world, Olivia can go from the sweetly sung high heavens to howling at the moon in an instance, begging those feelings to flutter into the world and to bug someone else.

Trying to decipher just what’s coming through though isn't always easy, since the kaleidoscopic nature of Olivia’s noodling comes at a price to the directness of her ideas. ‘Cocoon (Version One)’ is one of those instances of a song threatening to fall apart into a collapsing heap of noise. 'Great Big Nothing' really leans into the lo-fi, folk nods; so much so, in fact, it almost goes head over heels on its endeavour to do something different.