Slowdive - "everything is alive" (2023)

As I mentioned when I reviewed loveless way back when, Slowdive's Souvlaki was my introduction to shoegaze proper, after years of loving artists that draw a lot of inspiration from the genre. I never got around to talking about that record, but it very much deserves its cult classic status. Its such a moody and atmospheric piece that you can really loose yourself in. I remember following this I checked out their 2017 comeback album, and it didn't really grab me in the same way. It felt quite blown out and maximalist compared to the subtlety and patience of Souvlaki. It was still a very moody and atmospheric record, but it came across like it was built for arenas rather than headphones.

everything is alive follows this up with a much more low-key vibe, and I've found myself putting it on a fair amount since its release despite it not being particularly innovative or ground-breaking record in the band's discography or genre as a whole. It is very dreary and greyscale compared to the hazy dreamlike nature of Souvlaki, even bordering on gothic rock in places. The tracks swell up around you, but lack much vibrancy, feeling very wintery and sparse - which has been perfect for the early morning train rides I have been having to take for work. 

The record opens with shanty, which is driven by swells of monotonous synths, as the feedback laden guitars fill up the lower mix, evoking feelings of looking out of the window on a grey rainy day. This is followed up by prayer remembered, where the slow plodding bass and drums and lack of any vocals make it feel like it wouldn't be out of place in The Cure's early goth period. alife picks things up a bit with spiralling, jangly guitars, a more notable melody and up-tempo pace.

I'd say the second half of the record isn't quite as slow and greyscale as the first, which is a good thing as I think a whole record that dour and bereft could get a bit tiring by the end. kisses is probably the catchiest song on the record, the vocals are the clearest and the song is structured as a simple new wave pop song, just with more atmospheric dynamics and effects. It really picks the record up after how slow and downtempo andalucia plays leaves the first half. skin in the game also has a memorable hook, although I don't quite vibe as much with it as kisses or alife. It's a tad slower and doesn't really have the melodic guitar parts those two songs did, but it's also not slow and airy enough to loose myself in like prayer remembered.

chained to a cloud is built around an ascending synth part, which like the title suggests feels like ascending up into the atmosphere. While quite a novel change of pace for the record (which up to this point has not sounded at all heavenly and ethereal), it's probably the weakest song on the album. It feels pretty underdeveloped, and the repeating synth loop is warn into the ground fairly quickly. This leaves the closer, the slab, left - which is by far the strongest song on the album. It's a monolithic piece, aiming for the wall of sound approach rather than the softer dynamics the rest of the album as played with leading up to it. The chugging, mechanical drums, ringing keyboards and feedback drenched guitars overwhelm you as you feel like your approaching some kind of impassable wall or structure. Where the rest of the album is bleak, the slab is sinister and imposing.

everything is alive would be a more notable album if it had more moments like the slab that made you feel a variety of emotions, but as it is, it is a pretty consistent if unsurprising release that's got enough highlights for me to come back to it when I'm in the mood for something bleak and moody.

Top Tracks: alife, kisses, the slab

7/10

Wolf Alice - "Blue Weekend" (2021)

I have been eagerly anticipating Wolf Alice's return after 2017's Visions Of A Life, the group's second record and one that has grown into one of my all time favourites over the past 4 years. That album was such an expressive and expansive development from their debut, shaking off the more derivative aspects of their sound to create this perfect storm of chaotic noise rock and shoegaze. Blue Weekend follows VOAL by going in a slightly different direction. Enlisting the help of producer Markus Dravs (known for producing the biggest stadium sized rock albums from Coldplay, Florence And The Machine and Arcade Fire), and brimming in confidence from VOAL's Mercury Prize win, the band have crafted their biggest, most epic sounding record so far; yet also their softest and most accessible.

Blue Weekend leans much more on the dream pop side of the dreampop-shoegaze spectrum, with the record achieving the bands trademark hazy atmosphere more with waves of woozy, washed out synths rather than noisy, fuzzed out guitars and layers of feedback. There are still heavier moments on this album, but they're a lot less frequent than on the first two records. Not that it's a bad thing, though, as the song writing is as good (if not better) than it always has been. The lyrics are more direct this time around, focusing on the same sorts of themes of breakups, feeling out of place and lost that the band always has; but in more structured narrative that results in the record feeling like the most focused and cohesive of the three. The more consistent softer sound and shorter runtime also contribute to this feeling.

The record kicks off with the intro track, the short and building The Beach. This song is like a mission statement for the entire album, with Ellie Rowsell declaring that she's 'sick of circling the drain', hungover every weekend and that she doesn't want to battle and fight with someone (and old friend or partner who are no longer seeing eye to eye) anymore. The track linearly builds through lusher and lusher layers of synths and reverb and just sets the tone and frame of mind for the record so well. This is followed by the slow and loose Delicious Things, with the off kilter drums and smooshy psychedelic guitar tones creating this woozy, sort of drunken feel to the song. Rowsell sings in this hushed, staccato way about feeling like she's made it being a rockstar in Hollywood but also feeling lost and vulnerable to the kind of temptations and exploitative people that are part of the LA music and movie culture. The song has a real sense of honesty and balance to it, and really conveys Ellie's mixed, confused emotions without ever coming across like she's lost her agency.

The next track, Lipstick On The Glass, furthers the intricate emotional writing, being a breakup song that details the complexity and layers of grey instead of painting a simplified picture. Ellie sings about a fracturing relationship where it seems she has been cheated on by her partner, but is brutally honest about knowing she would take them back despite the unfaithfulness; yet it's not a song about forgiveness. It sits between the lines of anger and longing in a way that I don't see all that often. Musically, the song feels like it draws influence from a couple of places that the band hasn't really shown before. The strummed acoustic guitar and the flourishes of electric guitar licks that are the basis of the verses are very reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, especially with Ellie singing the entire of the verses in a super high, soulful falsetto that reminds me of his singing style. The track shifts to layered arpeggiated guitars in the chorus and bridge that feel more like Radiohead's In Rainbows. It's an entertaining meeting of these styles that are once again layered up and mushed together with tonnes of multitracked vocals that makes the track sound massive. If Delicious Things feels a bit drunk, Lipstick On The Glass is the point where you're getting quite drunk and the lights and sounds around you start to merge together and you know you should probably stop soon.

Smile is the first of two heavier, more traditionally rock songs on the record. It's a piece of poppy post-grunge that's reminiscent of the heavier moments on the first record, with chugging drums and bass, buzzing lead guitar and soaring, anthemic vocals from Ellie. The lyrics of the song feel much like clean summary of the themes of the record thus far, with Ellie telling us who she is as a person and why she can't just be put in a box as an 'raging rock frontwoman' or 'hysterical lonely girl' ect. The writing doesn't feel quite as personal as the first few tracks, but it doesn't have to be; it is one of the singles after all. And the relatability of the track really do give it legs in that respect. The second of the two is called All The Greatest Hits, and is the shortest song on the record. The track starts as a blistering riot grrl punk track about those obnoxious afterparties that we've all been to, where the music is too loud and the people are off their faces. But at the 50 second mark, the song flips on its head to become perhaps the most viscerally heavy track the band has created so far. Ellie screams at the top of her lungs, "IS IT LOUD ENOUGH??!!" against the backdrop of wailing feedbacked guitars, sirening synths and staccato strings that flood every corner of the mix. It's unbelievably chaotic and intense.

As tracks 4 and 7, these songs break the album into three legs separated by these heavier moments. The middle part of the record in between these two songs are Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love) and How Can I Make It Ok?. Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love) is an acoustic, fingerplucked folk tune with the earnest and relatable topic of not letting yourself fall in love to stop yourself getting hurt. While it has grown on me significantly due to the emotionally raw lyrics and Ellie's expressive cadence and delivery of them, I do feel like it is the weakest track on the record primarily due to the excessive multitracked vocals and the recurring refrain of the title running a tad repetitive. I feel like a more intimate approach to the vocals would've fit the tracks overall vibe and aesthetic much more. How Can I Make It OK? is something the band has never really attempted before, an 80's new wave / synth pop meets dream pop cut which is so damn catchy. The reverb gated drums, airy synths and snappy vocal melodies just stick in my head effortlessly. The track slowly introduces new elements then layers them up to the point where they're all just bouncing off each other.

The final leg of the record similarly progresses through several unique styles through the filter of band's dreamy production, although this part of the record feels the most grand and cinematic. Kicking off the back end is Feeling Myself, a track with a simple premise, men are shit lovers and Ellie feels she can do a better job herself. But the track is presented in a dramatic linear fashion with lush synth and string swells that make it seem like the accompaniment to the final scene of a movie. While I do really respect the song, I have found that I haven't been connecting with it like the other tracks, but I'm not exactly the target audience so that's understandable. I can totally see it being the album highlight for a lot of people. Following this is the soaring, anthemic piano ballad and lead single, Last Man On Earth. It's a song about feeling alone and out of place, even when perhaps you feel like you should be happy and you're not quite sure why you're not. It's a theme the band has nailed consistently in the past and once again deliver. It slowly drags itself from a place of insecurity and isolation to confidence and self-satisfaction. It make's the miniscule feel important and could cheer anyone up if they're feeling this way.

The record finishes up on it's most sentimental and sweetest moments, being No Hard Feelings and The Beach II. No Hard Feelings comes back to the acoustic folk vibes of Safe From Heartbreak, but is much more intimately and simply produced, which lends to the honesty of the song which provides a sense of conclusion to the albums romantic and breakup themes. Its a song about moving on without any lingering resentment to pastures new. The guitar tones on the track are just so perfect, it feels like you're just sat in room with Ellie and an acoustic. The Beach II similarly provides conclusion to the themes of longing and soul-searching, as Ellie accounts watching the sun rise at the beach with her friends, and is reminded that that is all she needs, friends and a plastic cup fill with wine. The low end of the mix is dominated with feedback drenched guitars that sound like an aeroplane taking off, with the chiming lead guitar and Ellie's vocals on top sounding at peace with her self.

Blue Weekend is as fantastic record, and also unique within the band's catalogue. Instead of just repeating what worked so well on VOAL, the band has tried a lot of new things that have for the most part paid off. They've kept true to themselves, and the bands identity and strengths and produced another record I'm gonna have on for years. I think I do still just about prefer the rougher, more chaotic nature of of Visions Of A Life, but Blue Weekend is only a slither behind it in all honesty.

Top Tracks: The Beach, Delicious Things, Lipstick On The Glass, Smile, How Can I Make It OK?, All The Greatest Hits, Last Man On Earth, No Hard Feelings, The Beach II

9/10

my bloody valentine - "loveless" (1991)

Turns out finishing your degree takes a lot of your time, so it has been pretty quiet on here for a couple of months. But one of the records that has been on repeat while I have been working is this, my bloody valentine's loveless. Shoegaze as a genre has peaked my interest ever since I got into Wolf Alice as a teenager and really adored that aspect of their sound. I started with Slowdive's Souvlaki a few years ago, however never seeked out loveless, the apparent pinnacle of the genre, as mbv had removed their library from streaming. But now it has returned, and so of course I had to check out this record that I have heard so much about.

And damn I see why this record gets so much praise. If  I could describe it in one word, it would be 'visceral'. It simply blows you back with the shear volume of sound that every track here forces upon you, it feels like standing in front of a jet engine. But at the same time it never feels uncontrollably or unlistenably noisy. The sounds ebb, flow and spiral. Crashing, heavenly highs are followed by buzzing and lowkey comedowns. Loud-soft dynamics come into play both between tracks in the sequencing of the album, and within tracks themselves. The opener, only shallow, exemplifies this perfectly; smacking you right in the face with this screeching, distorted guitar line that sounds like a buzzsaw before giving way to the gentler verses where Bilinda Butcher's hazy, low in the mix vocals provide the simple lead melody that sticks in your head like some sort of lucid dream. The harsh guitars return throughout the track to snap you out of this haze.

Following only shallow are the three gentlest tracks on the record: loomer, touched and to here knows when. On loomer, there is so much distortion on all of the instruments and everything is mixed way down that only really the lead guitar and Butcher's vocals are clearly audible. The fuzz everywhere apart from the vocals makes it feel like Butcher is standing in the calm at the centre of a hailstorm. There is a weird, dark sense of serenity that the track captures. This dense, foggy atmosphere is carried through touched and to here knows when. However these tracks have a sense of beauty to them, as the addition of gliding synth lines compliment Butcher's voice making them more dreamy than dark.

These lead into the next high-energy track, and perhaps the albums highest high, when you sleep. This duet between frontman Kevin Sheilds and Bilinda is pure catchy indie power pop at its core, it is such as simple song with only really two melodic parts. But the fuzz and noise give it just so much cathartic energy. It is the kind of song you blast as loud as you can out of your cars stereo while breezing along roads in the summer. The following song, i only said, feels like very much a counterpart to when you sleep. It is still quite a high-energy song, but feels more drawn out; and with the juxtaposition of the soaring synth lines against the thicker, meatier bass and drum section feels like it's pulling back down to earth after the blast of euphoria that when you sleep provided.

This leads in quite well into come in alone, where the lower end of the mix is given much more prominence with it's chugging bass and whining guitar. The drums are pretty audible on this track which is pretty uncommon on the record. Sheilds' vocals also remind me a bit of Ian Brown of The Stone Roses, much lower in register than some of the hazy, dreamlike vocals earlier in the record. This is followed by another comedown, in the form of the beautiful ballad sometimes. Much like loomer, the most audible things on the song are Sheilds' hazy, melancholic vocals, the fuzzy bass and a hint of a strummed acoustic guitar; with some quiet synths popping up towards the end of the song. It's simple, but lets you get sucked into the quiet rumblings and is such a unique way to convey the emotional impact of a ballad.

The following couple of tracks are a little weaker than what has come before, mainly due to them not really providing much new that the album hasn't already covered. blown a wish is a droning, looping tune revolving around this simple synth line and Butcher's dreamy vocal melody. what you want follows in when you sleeps footsteps, being a raucous, energetic indie rock song that has been fuzzed out and warped. These songs are still really good on there own merits, but you can tell that at this point in the album, it has mostly shown everything it has up it's sleeve. The one thing it has left, is the alt dance meets shoegaze closer, soon. This 7 minute banger has this propulsive shuffling beat that just makes you want to move as the hazy guitars and Sheilds' woozy vocals wash over you and you settle into a kind of trance. It's a fantastic way to close the album off, dancing in a world of your own.

loveless is fantastic, and it's one of those records that you can hear its influence permeating through rock music up to this day. Aside from the shoegaze subgenre, I can hear it in the stadium-scale, maxed out mixes of the likes of Coldplay's Viva La Vida and much of Muse's catalogue; and the washed out dreaminess of a lot of 2000's and 2010's indie rock. While I don't think it is objectively perfect, it is just one of those records that you hear and trace so much back to it that it makes it a must listen in that regard.

Top Tracks: only shallow, loomer, touched, to here knows when, when you sleep, i only said, come in alone, sometimes, what you want, soon

9/10

Glass Animals - "Dreamland" (2020)

Glass Animals first two albums were pretty different, but equally great records that mixed up a lot of different sounds and styles including art pop, psychedelia, R&B and indietronica. However since the release of How To Be A Human Being in 2016, the band's drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a serious cycling accident and suffered brain damage, causing the band to go on hiatus while he recovered. Thankfully he has made a full recovery, and the whole experience left frontman Dave Bayley wanting to create a more personal album for their next release, as opposed to the eccentric character studies of HTBAHB.

This shift in lyrical content has also been accompanied by a shift in sound as well. The R&B elements of their sound take the centre stage here, with the psychedelic and art pop tendencies nowhere to be found. These R&B influences have been augmented with more than a handful of trap beats and a general washed-out, hazy dream pop atmosphere. I understand that this an attempt to match the dreamy nostalgia of the lyrical content, and that the more eccentric elements of the band's sound in the past would not have fit. However the album doesn't really sound dreamy, it sounds flat and sedated. This is part due to how slickly produced it is, but mostly due to the generic and predictable songwriting on both fronts - lyrically and musically.

Nearly every beat and groove on this record feels like I've heard it before in some generic pop tune on the radio in the past two or three years. It's the same thing with the hooks, melodies and chord progressions. It's almost as if the band was aiming for that market of boring, meaningless, 'vibey' pop songs that leave no impact and say nothing. The title track opens up the record with the most generic of Ibiza styled piano riff's before Bayley comes in with the most repetitive of vocal melodies, all filtered through so much reverb and echo it just sounds like slush. That's literally all the song does for three and a half minutes. The following track, Tangerine, sounds like Bayley heard Childish Gambino's Feels Like Summer, tried to make it, and ended up making something that sounds enough like it for it to be noticeable, but with a melody and groove so repetitive it fails miserably at recreating that euphoric summery vibe. It's All So Incredibly Loud is a linear track that is supposed to build and build throughout until the climax at the end of the song. However, the chord progression and synth crescendo at the of the song sound like any summer club track you'd here over the past 4 or 5 years; even if the percussion rhythm at the base of the track is decent.

Lyrically the album just doesn't work either. It's supposed to be about Bayley's experiences growing up - so it's a coming of age story. But it isn't; it's just a bunch of references to things from the late 90s / early 2000s (Space Ghost Coast To Coast is basically just a list of early 00s video games), and generic 'vibey' party songs about partying and sex and booze. There's no story here, no arc. Bayley is telling us nothing about himself, and filling in the gaps with his usual references to fruit and other random things. This fractured, whacky lyrical style worked on HTBAHB when he was turning it up to 11 and creating these incredibly eccentric character studies. On Dreamland, it seems like he doesn't want to turn himself into a caricature like this, but toning down the eccentricity just makes obvious Bayley's lyrical shortcomings.

While the majority of the record, while incredibly dull and boring, is inoffensively bland; there are a handful of real stinkers in here. Tokyo Drifting features Bayley's absolutely terrible attempt at trap rapping, and his vocals are filtered with so many effects that it genuinely sounds horrible. Luckily he hands the reigns over to Denzel Curry half way through, and Denzel being an incredibly talented rapper almost saves the track (but not quite). Melon And The Coconut personifies a fracturing relationship as these two fruit talking to each other, and it as stupid as it sounds. Bayley's vocals are filtered through the worst auto-tune imaginable, and there's a bluesy guitar part in the track that feels like its been put through the same awful effects. Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth obsession with sex really rubs the wrong way, I think due to it trying so hard to come across dirty and edgy while still attempting to be random and quirky. There's a lyric about gummy bears in this track, and gummy bears are not sexy, and trying to make them sound it comes across really weird and creepy. The track is also awfully mixed. Every part of the song is either too loud or too quiet at various points, but the dynamic is constantly shifting and it sounds terrible.

There are a couple of tracks that do feel fairly decent, although they would easily be some of the weakest tracks if they appeared on the group's first two records. Hot Sugar is built on the same jazzy sample as Loyle Carner's You Don't Know from last year, and it gives the song more of a sense of genuine coolness and actual life to it, and the vocal melody isn't too bad either. However if I think about the track too much, all I can think of is that if I like the song because of the sample and You Don't Know uses the sample better, why aren't I listing to that instead? Your Love (Deja Vu) is easily the best track here. The beat and bass groove on the track give it the greatest sense of urgency and momentum of any of the songs, and Bayley's vocals sound sensual and impactful. And the melody is actually catchy and not repetitive.

This record is one of those ones that feels so much longer than it is, by virtue of it being so repetitive and boring. I could not tell any of tracks from the last leg of the record apart from each other, because they all sound the same, and all sound so weak and unmemorable. Furthermore, there are enough stinkers on here for me to not ever want to come back to it. I find it so perplexing that the band threw out everything that made their first two records really interesting and fun, and replaced it with a sound that is already done to death, that they aren't even doing to a degree of any quality. This is not a good album and I'm really disappointed by it.

Top Track: Your Love (Deja Vu)

3/10

Tame Impala - "The Slow Rush" (2020)

While I more preferred Tame Impala's psych-rock sound of their first two LPs (I've grown to love Lonerism even more in particular since I reviewed it) to Currents' nu-disco and psyched up synth pop, I wasn't expecting Kevin Parker and co to return to it. I was also okay with it, as there were elements of Currents that I thought were great and the band could hone the sound further (much like the jump from Innerspeaker to Lonerism). For the most part, I feel that's what we've got, although there are some things holding the record back in my opinion.

The first two singles for the record dropped in early 2019, Patience and Borderline, before Parker delayed and reworked the album. This resulted in a new album version of Borderline and Patience being dropped entirely. I think this was a good move, as these singles had a very washed out and dream-poppy aesthetic, but felt rather limp and lifeless to me. The new version of Borderline is miles better, with the bass and drums pumped up and the whole song sped up. The squelchy bass and glistening keys give the song an infectious, dance-able groove. The first half of the record follows suit and provides a bunch of super groovy and psyched out songs indebted to not just disco but other forms of dance music as well, primarily house and Balearic beat.

One More Year opens up the record with chopped up, stuttering vocals, before the snappy beat fades in and Kevin's lead falsetto vocals glide on top. The lyrics intrigue me, dealing with the idea of time and what Kevin wants to achieve if he only had one more year. Perhaps it's relating to the band, and Parker is questioning if they can keep it up. The track builds momentum until the line "One more year, from today...", where the track breaks down into this effortlessly cool outro. These themes of time and achievement, and self doubt run through the album, and Kevin has clearly grown as a lyricist since Currents. The lyrics only really served the purpose of atmosphere on the bands earlier releases, but on Current's Kevin started to stretch out and tell more detailed experiences. However the lyrics on that album sometimes had a sour and wallowing tone, which is not the case here. It really feels like Kevin is writing introspective and emotional songs with more balance and less awkward self-pity.

The best example of this is my favourite song on the record, Posthumous Forgiveness. The song details Kevin's fractious relationship with his late father, and the tone of his voice excellently conveys the pain and hurt, and also the internal confusion that Parker feels towards his dad. The heavy, distorted synth line that runs throughout the song, accumulating in a massive, crushing breakdown really sell the tension and importance of this song. This leads into the second section of the song; a much breezier part where Kevin goes on to forgive his father and wish that he was still around to see all the amazing thing he is doing with the band.

Breathe Deeper, by contrast, is a much simpler song. It's an out and out dance song with an incredibly infectious groove and hook. The sparkling keys and funky bassline play off each other so well, and Kevin sounds uncharacteristically confident and swaggering on the vocals. Following this, Tomorrow's Dust slows the pace back down. The track has a very dream pop vibe, with the strummed acoustic guitar and reverb soaked instrumentation. Kevin sings about the past and how long ago and unrelatable it feels to him now, specifically referencing the bands back catalogue with the line "There's no use trying to relate to that old song".

It's at the half way point with the song On Track where the album's problems start to show. For each song I enjoy on the back half of this record, it is punctuated with one I don't care for. This completely kills the momentum of the album. On Track is the record's only ballad, and it builds up from a skeletal first verse to the chorus, which completely flat-lines and isn't memorable in the slightest. As the song progresses more instrumentation is introduced, but everything is so soaked in reverb and fader that it doesn't feel like the track really builds up as it progresses, and leaves me with the feeling of 'that was really 5 minutes?'.

Following On Track is Lost In Yesterday, a straight up disco-pop song with a catchy as all hell chorus and some excellent lyrics about losing your self in nostalgia and only embracing the past if it's beneficial and forgetting about it if it is not. The lyric "Eventually terrible memories turn into great ones" always jumps out at me on every listen. But then the track Is It True follows it. The track isn't bad, but to me it feels like it's trying to do the same thing as Breathe Deeper with a less interesting beat and a more clunky chorus. I like the switched up beat and jazzier, more loose feel to the outro, but it is just an outro, so doesn't really save the song.

It Might Be Time opens up like some kind of reverby Supertramp song, with a very 70s sounding keyboard line and Parker's high falsetto vocals. The lyrics of the song follow on from Lost In Yesterday, dealing with Kevin's fears of the bands relevancy going forward and whether he enjoys it as much as he used to. The track builds into a wall of sound as it goes on, with massive chugging drums, crunchy guitars and this wild, siren-y, distorted synth line blaring on top. It really dramatises the themes of the track.

The final track, One More Hour has a similar pop-prog feel to it. It phases through multiple sections with different instruments and effects popping in and out. The lyrics come across brutally honest, talking about Kevin's various motivations behind the band, his need for solitude every so often, and his doubts of the band's continued success and relevancy. The track builds up in intensity to the point where some noisy, distorted guitars come into the mix. It gives the ending a very shoegaze-y, ethereal atmosphere; which is furthered by the fade out at the end of the track. It makes me feel like Kevin is ascending off into the clouds.

But sandwiched between these two tracks is the completely uneventful and unnecessary interlude, Glimmer. I honestly don't know what purpose it serves, as the album is long enough as it is; and It Might Be Time and One More Year are quite tonally similar, and do not need an interlude between them. At 57 minutes, this album on the whole feels quite bloated. The weaker tracks in the second half don't feel necessary, and there's a handful of studio snippets separating some the songs that could easily come out. Quite a few of the tracks have long, extended outros, which are fine at a track by track level, but just drag the album out when listening all the way through.

The best tracks on this album are really great (and Posthumous Forgiveness is fantastic), but it does feel Kevin got a bit carried away when putting it together. It's just simply an hour long album with 45 mins worth of ideas. I don't think ill be coming to it in full very often because of this, but 45 mins of good ideas is still quite a lot of good ideas, so it's worth checking out for the highlights alone.

Top Tracks: One More Year, Borderline, Posthumous Forgiveness, Breathe Deeper, Tomorrow's Dust, Lost In Yesterday, It Might Be Time, One More Hour

7/10

Tame Impala - "Currents" (2015)

Currents is a quite the shift from Tame Impalas previous record, Lonerism. It ditches many of the guitars for more of a psychedelic synth-pop style. This new approach makes the record feel much more sonically dense than Lonerism, which I'm not really latching on to as much (I really liked the spacious atmosphere of Lonerism). I find it slightly impenetrable, as if I can't really get absorbed by the record.

The album opens with its best cut, Let It Happen, a track driven by its thumping, dance-able bass riff. The track goes through multiple phases, one of which where the track chops up like old scratched CDs do, only to do it again and then more frequently until the track bursts out of it with the return of the bass line. The Less I Know The Better has a similar bass line, with Kevin Parker singing some pretty catchy falsetto vocals. I also get a bit of a disco vibe from this track with the strings which float around in the mix in the back half of the song.

Disciples sounds far more similar to Lonerism than anything off this record, being a more guitar driven track. It's such a shame that it is so short, as it has the spaciousness the rest of the album lacks. I feel like Nangs is the best exploration of the synth style, which is also far shorter than it could be. The track is rich in atmosphere, having this wobbling, warbling noises. I also feel it benefits from having no vocals. The vocals across the album are in this heavily processed falsetto style, which works on some tracks, including the aforementioned Let It Happen and The Less I Know The Better, as well as Reality In Motion. However they feel far less dynamic than on Lonerism, just sitting on top of the mix where they used to dart around all over the place. 

A friend also brought to my attention that the lyrics feel just a little whiny. While Tame Impala has always had somewhat sad undertones, there are points on this record which verge into self-pity. The worst offender for this is Past Life, a track which has these really cringy pitch-shifted spoken word vocals about a previous partner. The track also has this incredibly bad sounding distortion effect placed on the entire mix at points which really doesn't mix well with the rest of the tune.

Current's is an incredibly made and produced album, but almost too so. Outside of some really great tracks (I mean Let It Happen is phenomenal), it's just too dense for me to really find myself being absorbed by the music. It is still enjoyable to have on in the background and has creative moments in most of the tracks which I appreciate. I can imagine someone else with slightly different tastes digging it a lot more than I did.

Top Tracks: Let It Happen, Nangs, The Moment, The Less I Know The Better, Disciples, Reality In Motion

6/10