Kickstarting the record with a searing and emotive, almost operatic piano driven ballad, Tiki Black reels you into the darkness of ‘The Sound of the Broken Wand’ with a wholly eclectic and cinematic sheen. The Sound Of The Broken Wand is a musical encouragement to growth and emancipation that presents the different faces of proverbially cutting the umbilical cord. It’s loaded with haunting arrangements, powerful vocal performances that showcase a range that’s staggering at times, and harmonies that shimmer and coat it all together. Black took her time with this release, “I need the time to experience, feel, understand and translate”, Tiki reveals. “I won’t rush life for the sake of a song. I won’t create a piece that I’m unhappy having to hear or perform for the rest of my life.” That feeling is definitely evident on the record. It seems aged, composed slowly and with a pointed idea of how to wrap it all together.
Recorded over a five year period wherein Tiki had to endure hardship and setback one after another, ‘The Sound of the Broken Wand’ echoes feelings of overcoming and pain all over it. Having to brave through funding issues, loss of voice, and of course the pandemic itself, the record’s existence is testament enough to the amount of work that went into its fruition. But it’s within the album’s emotion that Tiki Black manages to grasp your attention as a listener completely undivided and transfixed. Her voice effortlessly leaps across ranges, expresses itself with pain and glee alike, all the while leaving you unmistakably amazed. It’s in the record’s titular track where I feel that Black hits the best notes and the record has its indisputable zenith.
A hauntingly beautiful piece of art pop, with hints of contemporary soul and indie folk interspersed throughout.