A dedicated musical shape-shifter, Sydney’s Bertie Blackman has progressed dramatically with each new release. Her breakthrough third album, 2009’s Secrets and Lies, acts as a natural stepping stone between the gnashing alt-rock of 2006’s Black and the darkly conceptual electro-pop of 2012’s Pope Innocent X. The common thread is Blackman’s focus on cathartic release, especially when she reflects on her relationship with her father, the late painter Charles Blackman. She would later pen a memoir plumbing those depths further in 2022’s Bohemian Negligence, and become a visual artist in her own right. On Secrets and Lies, new-found electronic flourishes snake through tracks like “Thump” and “Black Cats”, which pair ominous portent with lyrical immediacy. The clapping rhythmic pulse of “Heart” makes all the more room to showcase Blackman’s expressive vocals, before sneaking in a surprise burst of throwback 1960s-style melodicism. Her lyrics offer twinned themes of hunger and desire on “Lust and Found”, while the jagged “White Owl” introduces some of the fairy-tale imagery that would suffuse her follow-up effort. This album also marks the start of Blackman’s collaboration with producer François Tétaz (Gotye, Wolf Creek), who helped the formidable singer-songwriter take full flight on Pope Innocent X.