“Katie Stelmanis’ fourth album swings for big, embodied pop moments without shying from the strangeness and discordance that’s animated the project since the beginning.”
“Revenge-pop bangers get served up cold by Austra on album four”
“Hirudin is a chemical released by leeches which works as an anticoagulant, preventing blood cells from sticking together and clotting into a whole. It’s an apt title for Katie Stelmanis’ new album as Austra, both for its thematic explorations of dying relationships and its patchy, occasionally antiseptic feel. The record starts out strong with ‘Anywayz’, which is the kind of melodramatic synthpop”
