Penelope Trappes Penelope Three

The Australian-born, UK-based musician hones her songwriting and polishes her production without losing the atmospheric qualities that made the first two albums in this trilogy so captivating.

Trilogies often don’t end well. The Godfather Part III, The Rise of Skywalker, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Dark Knight Rises were all major disappointments, and that’s just a partial list—even The Hangover Part III failed to stick the landing. For Australian-born musician Penelope Trappes, the stakes may not be quite as high, but her new album Penelope Three, the closing chapter of a series that includes 2017’s Penelope One and 2019’s Penelope Two, does arrive with a certain amount of pressure, as it’s clear that she’s made a significant effort to level up her craft.

Before releasing Penelope One, Trappes logged the better part of a decade as one half of electro-techno outfit the Golden Filter, a group that emerged from NYC during the late-2000s bloghouse boom and impressively survived the trend’s precipitous crash. The duo found a smattering of success, but it wasn’t exactly a vehicle in which Trappes—who was then a thirtysomething mother—felt free to fully express herself. Her solo material, however, which she began developing in earnest following a move to the UK in 2014, is intensely personal and emotionally naked; it’s no coincidence that the artwork for several of her releases have revolved around nude portraits of Trappes herself.

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