Stream: Clara-Nova, ‘The Illusionist’

Kevin Bronson on September 29th, 2017

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It’s taken a while for pop sophisticate Sydney Wayser — aka Clara-Nova — to rebound, but bounce back she has. The singer-songwriter, who grew up between L.A. and Paris and while living in New York amassed an impressive catalog of material released under her own name, spent the past couple of years remaking music she had recorded for a label before the business dealings fouled and left her masters in limbo. (She also guested on M83’s 2016 album “Junk” and spent time this summer singing backup for Lorde.)

So her new EP “The Iron Age” — the follow-up to 2015’s now-hard-to-find “The Bronze Age” — will arrive March 2. The first single “The Illusionist” came out today. Like the rest of the four-song EP, a collaboration with producer Shawn Everett (Julian Casablancas, Alabama Shakes, John Legend, Lucius), it boasts Wayser’s rich but acrobatic vocals leap-frogging over bold, agitated beats and gurgling synths. In content and texture, it outstrips the cookie-cutter electro-pop on the landscape right now — “The Iron Age” is testament to Wayser’s steely resolve.

||| Stream: “The Illusionist”