The Dark Horse

Cape Town, South Africa–based chanteuse Tailor specializes in dark and brooding serenades sung with a bewitching beauty. She's impressively prolific; half of her 2012 debut album, The Dark Horse, was written in a day. She sings in an unsettlingly low register for the dramatic opener, “My Faith”: a gripping ballad with gothic overtones in its dark piano notes and haunting background vocals. While there are moments here that recall early Fiona Apple, the versatility of Tailor’s voice is exemplified in the outstanding follower, “Wolf,” where she sings in a higher tone that sublimely recalls Joanna Newsom’s more haunting moments. As she’s stalked and hunted by her deepest fears, Tailor exposes her vulnerability here and on the emotionally wrought “Why Don’t You Love Me,” where she has moments of a cappella nakedness that put her loneliness under a microscope. “Step Back” is another salient single, where foreboding string arrangements accompany her impassioned singing and she warns her muse to either give her space or suffer the wrath of pent-up rage bursting at the seams.