Julie O’Sullivan’s song Mother wouldn’t sound out of place in a 1960s Disney movie.

Her gentle guitar guides the listener through old childhood recollections, while her words echo the fleeting thoughts and experiences of a child.

“I love you mother yes I do / I will always look up to you / And how you put up with his hand / I can’t accept you to love this man.”

Words that are dark in any circumstance – and the fact we’re hearing them from the viewpoint of a child makes them all the more bruising.

Yet, all scattered and innocent, Julie follows up with a more humorous twist:

“Can you buy this toy for me? / Promise this time I’ll be mature / At least two weeks before I’m bored.”

All before anchoring her message in place through the refrain:

“Mother, can you hear me, ’cause I’m crying out to you.”

A far cry from her run as frontwoman of alt-rock band Dead Network, and more bare than her stint as one half of the folk duo Sushee, Mother is Julie’s most stripped-back, raw, and honest performance yet.

— Stephen Cool