Ryn Weaver can, at times, sound like an artist undergoing an identity crisis. The Argentina-born singer’s debut album swings from indie folktronica (New Constellations) to EDM-fuelled stomp-pop (Pierre) to the gentle hip-hop leanings of early Lana Del Rey (Stay Low). Her brilliant 2014 viral hit OctaHate managed to do all of these things in three and a half minutes. At times, as on Free, there’s a danger of things crossing into the formulaic big-pop sound the Mumfords have spread through the charts. But more often, these songs – written with Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos among others – are imbued with enough subtle strangeness to remain beguiling. The finger-picked Traveling Song shows Weaver’s quivering voice can deliver the big emotions without the pyrotechnics, and suggests a future direction for the 23-year-old singer. In this context, an identity crisis seems less like a flaw and more a mark of authenticity, because who really has themselves worked out at that age?
