No, it has nothing to do with Wolfgang Amadeus... Rather this is a solo project by Caila Thompson-Hannant from Montréal. Think electro-pop and Thompson-Hannant’s other band, Miracle Fortress, instead of ‘The Blue Danube’ [Er, wasn’t that Strauss? Classical Editor]. Mozart’s Sister are furthermore inspired by Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, a work that also informed ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’ by The Smiths.
Whatever the inspiration, the result is a mind-boggling blend of pop and electronica with echoes of Tune-Yards, Grimes and Alunageorge. ‘Enjoy’, with its playground chant of “1,2,3 - don’t fuck with me”, sounds sweet and slightly menacing at the same time. In fact, there’s a lot of darkness on the record and it is clear Thompson-Hannant is wrestling with personal issues. “Most of my friends are medicated just like me,” she sings on ‘Salty Tear’, for instance.
“I think I was trying to make sunny songs, but they didn’t come out that way,” Thompson-Hannant has revealed. “Demented is what I’m going for.” Being succeeds in being strange and otherworldly – yet firmly rooted in mainstream pop sensibilities. Mozart was overrated anyway. Check out his sister.