A sextet revolving around the song writing of Beccy Owen and Adam Kent, Sharks Took The Rest thread together pop and classical elements without the coldness that’s sometimes inherent with that blend. Rolling piano and silvery strings gently lead the music here, the percussion is light, understated and inventive. The music at times wanders on tipi-toes around being translucent, firm and playful (the finale of “Ancestors” toys with the melody of Sigur Ros’ “Hoppípolla” without ever going there). While this demo is definitely a case for kudos to the whole group, a collaborative process of song building and full band interpretations, the cat’s eyes on the horizon for Sharks Took The Rest is Beccy Owen’s rich voice. Already a highly regarded solo artist and songwriter, Owen’s charms are in her ability to flow between the openness of the genuinely vulnerable and a knowing, sometimes quixotic, distance. If you’re after a reductive shorthand round-up, it’s possible to see Beccy Owen as a more-together Fiona Apple – minus the affectations. Grounded in reality, but steeped in everyday life’s magic and loss. Awkwardly personal and beautiful domestic dramas are told here from an internal perspective, these three songs are stories that already exist before the songs begin, the listener arriving when the story has already begun. There’s as much an iron core in the heart of Owen, the proverbial ice in the heart of the writer, as there is real warmth in that same empathetic heart. 10/10 -- Scott McKeating (9 December, 2009)