Aldous Harding - Train on the Island

Indie Folk – Released May 8, 2026 – 10 songs, 39 mins

REID

The music industry is in a constant state of flux. Artists are continuously attempting to stay ahead of the curve, trying to introduce the world to something we haven’t heard before. Many of the most celebrated reviews from TSR applaud sonic diversity, leaving us in awe as we dissect the intricacies in their work. Those details are often what differentiates the great from the good and it will always be something I’m interested in when looking for new material. This week’s artist is a reminder that sometimes less is more.

Aldous Harding is in her mid-thirties and hails from New Zealand. She’s been consistently active since arriving on the scene in 2014 and is already on her fifth studio release with Train on the Island. Although this is my introductory listening experience, her first four have had warm critical reception and I can understand why. The prevailing sentiment from Train is the effectiveness of Harding’s straightforward approach. Simple melodies. Great mix of piano, guitar and synthesizer. Vocal clarity and a strong compositional effort to tie it all together.

So what’s so special about a basic record like this? First of all, it’s risky. I just finished talking about the complexity of this trade in the year 2026 so to strip things down in this fashion is admirable. Reminds me of the old adage; if it was easy, everyone would do it. Harding is confident enough to allow her fundamentals do the lion’s share of the work. But that’s obviously not all. Sprinkled tastefully throughout the tracklist are switch-up moments that serve a dual purpose of accentuating the rudimentary and elevating the overall feel of the songs. One Stop and San Francisco have excellent synth to acoustic guitar transitions. What Am I Gonna Do? is the most experimental of the lot and the synth to piano beat change before the harp solo finish is quality stuff. It’s the most synth-driven track, along with I Ate The Most and to space them at tune eight and one respectively is clever work. The soundscapes may be easy in theory but Harding plays them off one another so well.

Lastly but arguably most importantly is Harding’s vocal performance. You cannot have an album like this without killing it on the mic and she does just that. Her voice is the instrument that ties it all together. Her range is impressive and she uses it to its full effect, something that has bugged me with some modern-day artists. They write the most emotional lyrics of personal experiences and then perform them in a subdued, albeit uninteresting manner. Where’s the passion? Harding on the other hand, can deliver her cryptic thoughts on Train On The Island and San Francisco with her lower keyed voice before ratcheting it up near the end to add an entirely new feeling. The impact is felt in your headphones but you’ll feel it even more in person. The male/female vocal harmonies on Venus in the Zinnia and Coats add a nice touch.

I’ll wrap this up with a few quick thoughts. I haven’t explored Aldous enough to understand her influences but her edginess reminds me of Fiona Apple and her voice, Sarah McLachlan. Near the end of ‘I Ate The Most’ she repeats ‘I’d like to fly’ and I can’t help but wonder if it’s a nod to  Layne Staley and Alice in Chains on Down In A Hole.

In a genre that celebrates the technical and complex, Harding dares to dial it back. Train on the Island’s strength is in its simplicity as she compliments guitar, synth, piano and dynamic vocals.

Overall Rating: 8.3/10

Favourite Song: Coats

ROZ

Much like our last review, this week’s artist is one full of weirdness and wonder. Rather than seek out a viral hit this time however, TSR instead shift gears and looks at the divine simplicity that is the talented Aldous Harding as releases her fifth studio album Train on the Island.

To be frank, I had fully realized that this review would be no easy task, regardless of my instinctual enjoyment of the album itself. To start it off, I could find little in terms of a digital footprint for the artist, who seemingly gave few interviews and very little to go off before starting my journey into her world (and honestly? The mystique of it all intrigued me even more so). From a production standpoint, the album is quite modest and dare I say simple – longtime collaborator John Parish produced it with the goal of giving Harding the platform to do as she pleases.The arrangements are stripped down to the point of being almost void, and while the efforts from the talented musicians who make up the sonic landscape of Train on the Island are very much appreciated and seen, they merely serve as the ambient hum behind the lead vocalist at the helm. Slivers of harp, pedal guitar steel and organ add to the whimsy and beauty woven across the record while the percussion element is very much dialed back to an almost zero.

In the end none of that truly matters, as the most important piece still rings loud and true – this album digs into my soul and elicits a dopamine rush that leaves me spellbound and laid out every time I turn it on. Through each listening session, I found myself settling in and drowning out everything else around me to bask in the album’s warmth and serenity – therapeutic, almost, in a way. The payoff for these decisions ultimately comes to fruition, as Harding’s stellar range of performance styles took center stage while her eccentric lyricism kept me enamoured from start to finish (save for If Lady Does It, which was a bit too much even for me). Otherwise, standout tracks were numerous – whether it was the strikingly introspective lyricism of Worms, the key change at the tail end of San Francisco or the infectious hook throughout Coats, there is enough variety across it’s thirty-nine minutes to enamor just about anyone curious enough to give it a spin.

It goes without saying that Aldous Harding’s Train on the Island is the ultimate personification of “less is more”. This stripped back effort allows the artist to show off her magnificent oddness front and center, free from all distraction.

Overall Rating: 8.1/10

Favourite Song: Worms

LUNDI

If put on the spot to name one sub-genre of music I am most in tune with, it would most certainly be solo singer-songwriter indie rock, particularly on the female side. My streaming library is littered with the greats that have delivered the many beautifully elegant emotional songs throughout the years. Somehow despite 10 years on the circuit, this week’s artist has never found her way to me, and I salivated at the thought of a dynamic vocally shape shifting new artist that could bring a fresh spin on the genre to dissect. Aldous Harding’s Train on the Island had all the hype of a new fixation, but the more the surface was scratched, the clearer it became there was no real substance to be found. 

Perhaps this week perception got the best of me. The last time the historic blog of Pitchfork stamped a new album with a 9.0 it turned out to be my favourite record of 2025. Maybe Harding’s latest effort will grow on me as time passes, but as things stand I am left supremely underwhelmed. The issue is not that Train on the Island is quiet or restrained because some of the genre’s most affecting records thrive in hushed spaces, allowing every lyrical detail and vocal inflection to cut deeper. Harding instead delivers a collection that feels strangely weightless. The performances rarely evolve beyond a muted acoustic, flattening the unpredictability that had been sold beforehand. Time and again songs tease the possibility of a compelling vocal turn or emotional breakthrough before retreating back into the same subdued cadence. What should feel intimate instead borders on sleepy.

That lingering sense of incompletion stretches into the songwriting itself. Harding presents fragments of stories and abstract observations, but few ever arrive anywhere meaningful. The album continuously gestures toward depth without ever fully committing to an idea strong enough to leave a lasting impression. By the midway point I found myself searching for moments that demanded another listen and coming up almost entirely empty handed. There is nothing bad about Train on the Island, but that almost becomes part of the problem. It drifts by pleasantly enough in real time while offering little reason to revisit once the final note disappears.

Maybe time will soften my stance and reveal hidden layers but today Train on the Island feels like an album more interesting in concept than execution. The promise of discovering a bold new voice in one of my favourite corners of music quickly faded into an experience that was frustratingly bland. I’m stoked for those who love it, but you’ll find me retreating to my already solidified favourites. 

Overall Rating: 7.3/10

Favourite Song: Coats