7/10

Throughout the last few years, Swedish alt-pop artist Winona Oak has been building and developing her sound. And although she has found herself collaborating with a flurry of bigger and more mainstream names since then, including Alan Walker and Robin Schulz, she very much inhabits the outer peripheries of her genre, both aesthetically and sonically. But despite a broad and eclectic array of releases since 2019, she finally makes the bold move to release her long-awaited debut album 'Island Of The Sun', a record that looks to cement her legacy to date.

With artists in her position, choosing what to include on a debut full-length with already dozens of singles to your name means either delivering something entirely new or opting for a retrospective collection of previously shared offerings. In Winona Oak's case, she chose the latter in order to bring her exceptional catalogue to the forefront. But despite some of the singles featured on here are more than three years old, there is this undeniable freshness to her sound and style, allowing her to revisit her infancy and still maintain a broad and forward-thinking approach throughout.

Winona Oak has been an artist firmly on the rise in recent years, and 'Island Of The Sun' perfecting illustrates why so many are keen to push her reputation forward. There is an adventurous quality within this new release that aims to highlight all of her various tropes, and give us a beautifully spellbinding listen from start to finish.