Australian born singer-songwriter and guitarist, Bertie Blackman recently released her latest album, Secrets and Lies (2009); and if you enjoy bands such as Frou Frou and Feist, you may just agree that it is an outstanding collection of tunes. Indeed, this thirteen track indie-rock-electronica album is a compilation of soul-wrenching, brutally honest tracks in which Blackman masterfully juxtaposes beauty with ugliness; truth with deception; and reality with fantasy.

Bertie Blackman Documentary on YouTube

The album’s first track, Sky is Falling, is gloomy and mystical, yet its soft, lulling melody is a great opening to an excellent album. Indeed, most of the lyrics on Secrets and Lies are based on fantasy-like themes. The third track of the album, for example, tells a tale of cats in an underground disco-world. Insofar, this album by no means keeps to the boundaries of the status quo: it’s unquestionably true to Blackman’s imagination and screams of something a lot more honest than what we are so often fed by the over-saturated, global pop-music industry.

Thump, the second track on the album is a surprisingly funky, foot-stomping song about being hunted by one’s own shadow; whilst the fourth track (the album’s first single), appropriately dubbed Heart, is one in which Blackman sings of the lies and deception being sold to us by media and politics. With her chorus line “…I know there’s something sick with what I’ve been sold”, she urges listeners to “take a stand and not be embarrassed to say what they think or feel about something” (Blackman, 2009). It certainly isn’t surprising that in 2009 Heart was one of Australia’s most downloaded singles on iTunes of all time. Noteworthy, too, is how Blackman impresses with the music video to this track, which, to watch, is like taking a four-minute-six-second trip into some of her most theatrical and creative thoughts.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the best tracks on this album, as each has its own story to tell and each reveals Blackman’s vocal talent in a different way. Her lyrics may be cryptic, but don’t let the idea of having to decipher the message turn you off. After all, it’s not art if it doesn’t challenge the way in which you think.