The Brooklyn via Russia, Olga Bell, sounds nothing like you’d expect from her pop songstress looks. This is another one to file under: Don’t judge a book by its cover. She has the range of Bjork or a Shara Worden and often makes you wonder if she knows how to control the volume of her voice, gently serenading you one minute and nearly blowing your eardrum out the next. Those things make her an interesting bag of tricks and her 6 song EP a hint of what she is capable of.

With spacey keyboards and infectious claps “Echinacea” is a nice introduction. Her quirky lyrics like, “I looked to the sun/ But it just makes me sneeze/And no one would bless me,” are cutesy (maybe too much for some), but catchy. “Expanding File” is a drum and keyboard dance song highlighted by the layering of her own vocals, which she does throughout the album. On “Brown Bear” you will want to adjust the volume as she begins in a whisper, but I advise you not to. Halfway through things get very loud as she breaks into a scream about clouds shaped like bears.

Although her voice along with the keyboard is pretty, “Miner” doesn’t  stand up alongside the other songs. But with “Chunk” she brings us back to her magical little world filled with dreamy keyboards and a slow but steady drumbeat, she sweetly talks about “change” in all senses of the word. The choir at the end of the song help build it to mini-anthem status, but it is Bell’s voice as she takes out with a whisper that is always the focus.

- Shannon Carlin