Talking about Gabriella Cohen requires a new adjective: when she tells you about a guitar tone she likes, an organ sound shes looking for, or the opening bars of The Velvet Undergrounds I Found a Reason, she might tell you these things sound pink. Shes not describing a synesthetic or aesthetic connection with the colour — instead, its an adjective shes coined, all her own. Luckily, after a spin through Cohens debut album Full Closure and No Details, we will all know what pink sounds like: it sounds like this. It sounds like heartbreak and reckless abandon, like quiet reflection and raucous teamwork.
Cohens first solo full-length is the product of ten days and two microphones. Co-produced alongside close friend, bandmate, and engineer Kate Babyshakes Dillon, the record is the result of what Cohen describes as the “ceremony” of reflecting on a relationship. The albums raw, personal side could be traced back to its place of birth at Dillons parents place in the country, or to the Brisbane streets the songs were composed in. The songs are soaked in the kind of aching nostalgia that is tinged with equal measures of sadness and triumph. On “I Dont Feel So Alive”, Cohen warns: “This could be the last time we get together”, and on one hand its melancholy, but its in the spirit of endings that are also beginnings. After finishing the record, Cohen and Dillon hit the road down Australias East Coast, from Brisbane to Melbourne, a truck full of instruments and gear following in their wake.
There are two sides to Cohens coin though — for every moment of raw, cutting emotion, theres one of otherworldly ethereality. Its what makes the record feel timeless, which doesnt mean old-fashioned — it means that the vocoder on “Feelin Fine” and the fuzzy, frenzied drums of “Alien Anthem” dont feel at odds with the dreamy, ambling melodies and old-school ethos at the heart of Cohens songwriting.
Full Closure is a definitional labour of love: when Cohen talks about her collaborators she sounds like shes talking about her family — her bass player and backing singers, ring-ins that recorded after Cohen and Dillon finished up in the country, are “dear friends”; and Dillon is her “sister”. The songs were written on Cohens grandpas nylon string guitar, and “Piano Song” was recorded on Dillons parents old, out-of-tune upright, the same piano she learned on as a child.
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