Kama Vardi - Moonticket (2020)

Tel Aviv based songstress Kama Vardi is a charming enigma, a very old soul in a young woman’s body, and an artist who effortlessly garners 5-star reviews from top Israeli critics yet feels like a wonderful secret still to be uncovered.

When you listen to Vardi’s new album Moonticket you are reminded of a different world, of zeitgeist outcasts such as Emily Dickenson, Molly Drake and Nico. Of a time ruled by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits, when music was centred by honesty, and committed to a deeper sense of things. It’s a world that still exists if you listen carefully enough, beating quietly right under the other one.

Moonticket is timeless in feel, where simple production and harmonies offer a delicate stage décor which allows the lyrics to take centre stage - for the words are the album’s glowing element, a breath-taking monologue told quietly in the listener’s ear.

Vardi’s style is one of storytelling, told through the lens of a woman whose life experiences have made her both fragile, world weary but also very wise. Similarities can be made to Vardi and aforementioned Nico – whom Vardi pays homage to on the album’s cover of ‘These Days’. Both artists shared the experience of a misspent childhood, a sense of growing up too young and too fast. As Vardi expands ““I love Nico’s point of view on ‘These Days’ – no longer a gambler, a talker, a lover. It is a song of a woman who had great adventures that left her standing humble, wide eyed and weary in front of the rest of her life, a feeling I was familiar with from a young age.” Both artists sing with a raw honesty of their experiences, losses and loves with their equally beguiling and gently accented vocals.