Aldous Harding

The release of New Zealand folk singer Aldous Harding’s silky single “The Barrel” this year was met with considerable online debate. What exactly was she getting at when she assertively crooned, “Looks like a date is set / Show the ferret to the egg / I’m not gettin’ led along”? In the accompanying video for that song—in which Harding, as one YouTube user aptly put it, resembles “Feist [as] a sleep-paralysis demon”—she shimmies along in a large white hat, looking as if she knows a dark secret that the rest of us rather wish she didn’t. (The video is well worth a watch.) Nonetheless, drawing audiences in and then keeping them at arm’s length is all part of Harding’s effective mystical playbook. With the cerebral vocal stylings of Nico, the hypnotically convulsive dance moves of Kate Bush, and the quiet psychedelia of a Laurel Canyon songstress, Harding is a sleep-paralysis demon you might actually want to keep around. And if, after a few listens, you still don’t entirely grasp why the ferret is being directed to the egg, no matter. You’ll find yourself singing along, regardless.