Annabel Alpers is a Kiwi ex-pat currently residing in Brooklyn working under the alias Bachelorette. She wrote and recorded her self-titled third record in disparate places such as Oxford, Tripoli and rural Virginia. It’s a testament to her talent that Bachelorette actually works as one engaging piece, rather than a collection of fragments of memories.

Alpers began her musical education in a number of New Zealand psych bands, before going to university and completing a course in “computer-based composition”. She returned to making music in 2005, with computers turning out to be at the heart of what she does. Following Isolation Loops and My Electric Family, Bachelorette’s third album proper is a hazy electro-pop dream, crafted out of old synths, computer monitors, samples and vocals. It could be filed alongside Beach House’s dream-pop, or an amalgam of Goldfrapp’s glammy and gentle moments, and while the music is indeed quite dreamy and delightful, Alpers doesn’t sound too happy for the duration – it turns out that this may be her last album as Bachelorette, although her website Particle Tracks suggest work goes on at least for the moment.

The key to understanding this apparent unhappiness lies in the last three out of four tracks on the album. ‘Waveform’ and ‘Digital Brain’ find Alpers singing about taking solace in non-human form, the former’s wheezing harmonium-led lullaby containing they lyrics “The waveforms are our friends / they don’t personalise, or even criticise”, while in the latter she pines for the simple ones and zeros of computer processing. Final track ‘Not Entertainment’, an intense surge of electro, begins with the lines “Not Entertainment… I need to find someone to give a meaning to getting up in the morning” and ends with “For the last time goodbye, she is gone / for the last time goodbye, she is gone / for the last time goodbye.” And the last sound we hear on the album is Alpers singing “goodbye”.

Before we get to that tipping point, the album opens with the beautiful hymnal of ‘Grow Old With Me’, in which Alpers’ Kiwi vocals and vowel sounds are manipulated into androgynous tones, and this is followed by the acoustic nursery rhyme of ‘The Light Seekers’, bobbing along on an electronic burble. Lead single ‘Blanket’ darkens the tone with a deep bass throb, with glam undertones sneaking through the gloom. ‘Polarity Party’ keeps the album flowing with a poppier take on the dark electro, with Alpers sounding vocally like the Deheza twins from School of Seven Bells.

The album almost splits in half with its tone; the first handful of tracks are lovely upbeat examples of electric, psychedleic pop with ‘Sugarbug’ sounding like Yo La Tengo in their quieter moments, ‘The Last Boat’s Song’ call-and-response of baby cries and “shushing” adds a quirky tone and more harmonium, and ‘Tui Tui’ is a sweet little gem. Then we hit the aforementioned downbeat moments….

While those last songs are certainly darker in tone, they turn out to be just as enjoyable as what’s come before. If Bachelorette does turn out to be Alpers’ swansong as Bachelorette, then it’s a fine testament to her talents as a musician. However if it’s worked as catharsis, then even better for the music world as we can expect more joys from this performer.