Albertine Sarges surges forward with self-confessional quips about quitting in Family of Things

Family of Things is a beautifully literal album about addiction and hope, but explored with a refreshingly comedic edge. Through her perky lyrics and parading basslines, Sarges filters out the salt from tears and washes her music in a powerful tide of self-acceptance. Social commentary just got fun.

Delicious birdsong starts the album in “Wake of a New Dream”, doubtlessly inspired by Sarges’ adventures in bird watching. She encourages herself to “abandon my phone” and take time to enjoy nature (the irony of watching a YouTube video of the Hudson River while writing “the wake of a new dawn I’ll see things as they are” was not lost on her). In true Sarges style, the gravity of the sentiment is lightened by the self-confessed “goofiness” of the lyrics.

“Hold On” is the meat of the album, not to mention the accompanying music video that lights a fire under the already entertaining single. We watch a tobacco-stained Sarges stuck in a life-sized cigarette packet, as she encourages herself to keep trying to quit, despite the ever-present propaganda of the nicotine industry. However, under the self-effacing humour of being addicted to smoking long after it’s cool and you’re “wearing clothes like a granny”, is the pain of not having the free will to stop something you know is mortally harmful.

“ETIHL” centres around a timeless riff which came to Sarges in her sleep. It sounds like she dreamt that Manu Chao was spending some time in Agincourt and swapped his bongos for a lute. Anna Savage collaborates on this track, and compliments the mystical melody with her haunting Vashti Bunyan-esque vocals. Like the whole album, “ETIHL” is a melting pot of genres, and I wonder which one, if any, Sarges will choose to pursue next.

Family of Things explores everything from queer poetry to instrumental jazz. It’s a concretely solid album disguised in a feather boa, that encourages us not to take self-reflection too seriously. Sarges is an artist destined for an explosion of attention, and like the ice-cream in “In a Minute”, her music is soon to melt everyone into fans.