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Esther Sprikkelman and Harry Otten, formerly of The Nightblooms, have evolved many times in their careers. The old band went through several periods of experimentation and change before calling it quits, and Safe Home finds the pair making enchanting modern pop that sounds different from anything they've done before. And it is modern pop, despite Sprikkelman's claim (on their label's web site) that she doesn't listen to any modern bands except for Belle and Sebastian. If that's true, I'm sure then that Harry has a few Radiohead discs in his collection. In fact, at times (particularly "Moortown Bluebay") Safe Home approximates a musical dream of mine: a Yorke-less Radiohead. With fascinating layers of blips, bleeps, piano and guitar, the music is as interesting as the Kid A stuff, but with a beautiful female voice instead of Thom's whiny falsetto on top. Even the traditional Dutch tune "Bloemen" gets a 21st century make-over, with an oscillating bass part dancing behind Sprikkelman's vocals, which are again impressive. Even in Dutch (it is the disc's only non-English track) she sounds sincere, disarming, but with a trace of bitterness that is always appealing. Her melodies are sweet, and when she harmonizes with herself, as she is prone to do, it's a wonderful one-woman chorus and a near virtuoso vocal performance. Sprikkelman would sound great fronting any band, but is lucky in that she found a partner with whom she works so well. Otten is quite simply a very, very good guitar player. He gets all sorts of crazy sounds out of his instrument during the production process, but has traditional chops too; he knows how to pick a chord and pluck a melody as well as anyone. A good example is "Aries", which features a Bach-like classical guitar part mixed in behind the effects. However, it is on the instrumentals that he really gets to show off, as with the crazy wall-of-sound "Rickett's Revenge" -- a short, but impressive burst of noise. Not every song here is a gem -- a few tracks in the middle lack the shine of the opening and closing tracks, and perhaps the fact that this is more a collection of singles and other recordings than an album written as such results in a slight lack of focus. Nonetheless, You Can't Undo... is a highly enjoyable collection of fascinating tunes and a great example of evolving pop artists who use new technology rather than allowing new technology to use them.

An IndiePop Label founded in 1990, Chicago, IL

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