Single Review: Alison Wonderland – ‘U Don’t Know’

Don’t let snobs tell you different: the best music should openly appeal to the listener. It shouldn’t be difficult for the sake of being difficult, or so esoteric that it disappears up its own backside. Just because a song strives for simplicity, it doesn’t make it of less value than a track that strives for complexity.

But that doesn’t mean great music can’t be really, really weird, either.

Take the tunes of Sydney-sider Alex Scholler (a.k.a Alison Wonderland) for example. Scholler, a trained cellist in her past life, creates music that is at once immediately listenable, and yet never reductive. There’s nothing impenetrable about her music – she knows the power of a good, driving beat – but the wonderfully odd emotional tones she strives for means tracks like U Don’t Know warrant repeat listens.

U Don’t Know shows off all of Scholler’s many talents – her impressive vocals, her ability to nail melodies that are both otherworldly and yet deeply grounded in dance – while still finding the time to fit in a guest spot for The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. Most impressively, the inclusion of Coyne never feels like the musical equivalent of name-dropping, nor does it ever swamp Scholler’s own hypnotic vocal track.

With a full-length album out soon, it is only a matter of time before Scholler gets the recognition she deserves for her layered and awe-inspiring tunes.

Joseph Earp