Tension is the name of the game on Ariane Roy’s new album, as she constantly places conflicting ideas against each other until they become something new. By constantly shifting the footing and direction with each new track, Roy’s album lets its dark and light push and pull without ever getting old. Through its slick beat and creeping instrumentation, “Dogue” builds to a quirky-yet-sultry peak, with its unnerving synths colliding against its sax and groovy guitar. Despite alternating with a slow-jazz vibe, “Âmes soeurs” kicks into off-kilter explosions of kinetic keyboard sections that beg to be danced to. “I.W.Y.B.” runs a slow-build to make it thrash and wail once it really cuts loose, as its beats finally picks up steam, the fiery cries of “Want your body!” send the song off on dance-punk euphoria. There’s a more conflicting drive on “Agneau” as seeming longing and searching wonder in its verses is cut into pieces for a primal, ferocious chorus energy, needing to feast in its distorted and warped glory.
Mixing a grimy power punk fury with brass and meaty riffs that get under your skin, Time Ghost let their freak flag fly on their gritty-yet-playful new album. With the trumpets wailing out like a demented siren, “Zoning Laws” plays like a power chord answer to They Might Be Giants. While taking a large fuzzed-out step away from their other songs, “Big Whizzer” showcases a level of cohesion through its instrumental breakdown that you might not pick up on elsewhere on the record, as the trio shreds through line after line with pyric power. The crowd chants on “Fourth Uncle” mixed with the creaking riffs and melting wind instrument lines works too well, creating an overall blend that feels essential. Similarly, “Bugs and Rocks” mixes this with their raw back and forth vocal style, and so many unpredictable elements that one never really feels certain where it’s going next, but you’re far too thrilled to care.
Blending his modern production with a focus on updating more traditionally flavoured sounds, Bad Bunny has found a beautiful middle ground on his latest record. While immense fame could remove him from his roots, Bad Bunny has proven that expanding on your influences in the right way can provide the most inspiring art. “Nuevayol” sets things off on a constantly rotating radio-esque tilt, swapping between blown-out bass, handfuls of sound effects, sports broadcasts and clever use of samples that inspired the record’s larger sound. Once it exits a rather cosmic intro, “Baile Inolvidable” highlights Bad Bunny’s passionate vocals across beautiful arrangements, and loses some wondrous piano breaks and more of the album’s secret weapon, those righteous harmonies. The soaring vocal melodies on “Perfumito Nuevo” take another galactic leap for the sound, letting the more familiar stepping beat ground the sound amid its explosive highs. There’s a scrapbook feeling to “DtMF” that matches its tones of trying to take down those all-too-important moments more, crafting something that feels otherworldly and grassroots/DIY all in one.
Dropping a diss track against some kind of former lover, Blue Hawaii find the perfect lyrical backdrop for their newer sound on “Tan Lines.” The latest track from the Montreal duo captures the magic of their live sets, merging a frantic off-the-cuff energy with sublime production. Here however, they do a great job of finessing out tones of great vocal warps within the short run of the song, and letting the whole track’s tempo, ability to start and stop and even its colour be wrapped in how Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s vocals are evolving within the track. The track goes for the jugular on flip-floppers who can’t make up their minds, and sets a hilariously pointed boundary on how easily you can separate sex from love, especially when someone is cruel on every other level.
Michelle Zauner hasn’t slowed down too much over the years, and has found her footing across media in a way few artists manage in one. As she expands on her sound in this latest record, she may not be reinventing herself, but she does a great job painting a full picture of who she is as an artist. “Orlando in Love” fully blooms out the fantasy-born hazes that Zauner has expanded on more and more over the years, with strings and a lush-yet-simple guitar sound flowering out into a romantic knockout. While “Honey Water” keeps a similar burning fire in the cinematic production, there’s a sense of disillusionment in Zauner’s lyrics here, breaking out of the magic and trying to separate the romance from the truth. With a bit of America (the band) in its swinging folk tones, “Mega Circuit” creates a cool hyper-reality, as it uses subtle swings of synths and effects on top of its rustic tones to make a single emotional moment all the more poignant. As you listen through “Picture Window” its bones might not feel all that new, but it’s the tiniest sonic details (a crunch here, a shimmer there) amidst Zauner’s tales of ghosts that flesh it out into something more profound and stirring.
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