And Readers’ Week comes to a close with this NYC band, courtesy of Emily. Thanks again everyone for all your suggestions!
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[4.83]
Joshua Minsoo Kim: The rare Son Lux song that finds a thoughtful middle ground between pop song sensibilities and outré aspirations (in this case, as expected, more post-Bon Iver/James Blake-isms). Ryan Lott sings of wanting someone to tell him false truths, to grant him a semblance of comfort. The extended periods of silence capture the nervousness and grief that comes in acknowledging, even embracing, this dissonance.
[6]
Micha Cavaseno: Like listening to James Blake’s earlier post-dubstep soul mutations rendered both wider in scope yet all the more deliberately exaggerated in sounding threadbare. Like the stars in a quiet storm-soundtracked trip to lover’s lane visibly held by strings and comprised of bug zappers. The brass and refrigerator buzz clouds the melodies well, but leave the song almost too obsessed with its own protective aura and hesitation rather than demonstrate its potential to stirr, robbing it of the chance to stoke real sensuality.
[6]
Vikram Joseph: It’s a cooking show trope that if a dessert is completely going to shit, you can always serve it in deconstructed form as a last resort. “Slowly” is a chillwave, jazz and trip-hop torte which has, indeed, been served deconstructed, resulting in plenty of nice flavours which are never allowed to coalesce into something greater than their individual components. Ryan Lott’s vocals are a watery roux which fails to bind the dish together; strained and tremulous, it feels effortful just listening to them. Son Lux’s slicing and dicing works much better on songs such as “Dream State,” where they retain enough structure to make a late dash towards a harsh, thrilling climactic section. On “Slowly,” however, it just feels like a bland imitation of the sweet electro-pop treats that Sylvan Esso served up on last year’s What Now.
[4]
Alfred Soto: The scratchy thin beats are purest 2007, while fans of a certain kind of sensitivity would have embraced the cracked vocal in 1987. If “Slowly” generates any suspense, credit the stop-start mechanics.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: More ghosting mood, except sung worse. Resolution for 2019: For every “indie girl voice” thinkpiece written, another thinkpiece should be commissioned analyzing the syllabic mewling of indie dudes.
[1]
Tim de Reuse: Shambling along, cracking apart, with plenty of negative space and a meticulous, glassy mix à la James Blake. To be sure, the sheer detail that went into the sonic surface is impressive as hell, but the tune would’ve been punchier as a whole if it’d dropped out gracefully after making its point.
[7]