This was lifted from Brisbane’s Rave Magazine.

THE UNDERSTUDY – What Not To Think While In Love
Friday, 17 October 2008

(The Family Flyleaf)

Lo-fi songstress with a strong debut

The Understudy is a female songwriter from Newcastle who has put together an intriguing resume with her first LP. What Not To Think… weaves from healthy, reliable guitar/piano balladry to atmospheric, pseudo-minimalist folk. Opener Last Easy Day puts the Understudy’s vocals immediately at the fore, which works pretty well, because her voice sounds great.

Smoke & Strangers builds around a relationship between the Understudy’s vocals and some DIY-sounding percussion, while the piano introduction to Fine Young Folk sounds suspiciously like it’s been lifted directly from the Sesame Street theme but hey, it IS a great theme song. Figure 8 is backed up by a Matmos-like array of sounds, a wholly interesting and worthwhile approach, and again the Understudy’s voice flourishes placed next to a more interesting range of sounds. The songwriting is solid and so the quality of the record comes down to its execution. Fortunately the Understudy has executed pretty damn well.

MICHAEL PINCOTT