Washington

Overview

Megan Washington has a voice that sets your heart racing. She makes sorrow seem soft and lovely, but lists a thousand indecisions and revisions to be considered before curling into somebody. She took the title of The Tour of Laughter and Forgetting from Milan Kundera's 1979 book, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. There is no doubting that Washington, whose album I Believe You, Liar went platinum in February, has her own perspective on the moral order of things.

While Washington is creatively rich but "strapped for cash," she claims that she writes music for herself, not for others. Born in Papua New Guinea but a Brissie girl from age 11, her concept of pop culture was limited to fickle flights of fancy before she completed six years study at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. The bespectacled songstress then went down south, carving a niche in Melbourne’s music scene with her self-released EP titled Clementine. Her clever yet catchy indie-pop songs are sweetly brimful of contradictions; her lyrics are free of self-consciousness yet seek to make the personal universal.

Washington was crowned the breakthrough artist of 2010 at the ARIA Awards and has completed a successful run of summer festivals. Her guitar-plucked ballad, Lightwell, is one of the more intimate songs on new compilation When I First Met Your Ma and her plaintive voice is hold-me-closer haunting. Supported by Lissie and Deep Sea Arcade, Washington will provide a tonic to whatever ails you at the Metro on Thursday.