Daughter: 'If You Leave'/'Wild Youth'

First comprising of Elena Tonra as a solo act, then as a band with Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella, Daughter have been around for a little while - Tonra first caught my eye (ear?) with the 'Tales from the Shop Sessions' version of 'Peter', and then re-found her way onto my playlists with the stunning cover of Daft Punk's new single 'Get Lucky'. I might even prefer the cover to the original, and it's racked up hundreds of plays on my computer now. There's always the people who respond to your asking their opinion on music with a dismissive 'oh, I preferred their older stuff', as if a musician's stagnation is something that we should applaud or encourage, rather than accepting that artists change and grow and inevitably develop. I always loved the band Ulver precisely because their sound is so different album to album - if you love music you should be able to appreciate well crafted music no matter the genre, surely? Perhaps my irritation comes partly from listening to heavy metal (one of my favourite types of music) being dismissed as 'noise' by people who can't appreciate musicianship and craft despite it not being to their taste in terms of genre. Anyway. I loved Daughter's stripped back, acoustic sound at the start, but with the addition of members the sound has developed perfectly into an atmospheric, electronic, harmonic, layered listening experience (yes, experience)... 'If You Leave' has become one of my firm favourite albums of this year so far. Below are three of my favourite songs; 'Youth' and 'Still', both from the album, and 'Love', from the 2011 EP Wild Youth. I'll not lie, I've shed a couple of tears to 'Still', particularly with the video. Maybe it was just the hangover... The first is performed live, which in my opinion seems to be a great test for many musicians these days - Daughter pass with flying colours.

Image taken from the Daughter Facebook page