Merging hypnotizing arrangements with driving and often experimental electronics, Nadah El Shazly comes out swinging on her latest record. “Elnadaha” opens the album in a haze of dancing synths, ghostly vocals and a frenetic percussion drop that leaves you constantly dazzled but off-kilter. There’s a floating mood to the shimmering string plucks and sizzling beats of “Kaabi Aali,” that sees El Shazly revelling in its overall air of wonder, and creates a song that ramps up and pulls back the intensity rather than shifting to typical chorus melodies. As it moves from sparse harp, there’s a satisfying shift to pounding drums and psychedelic smoke on “Laini Tani” that drops you into the unknown while giving some of the album’s most invigorating grooves. The prominent electronic drive of “Ghorzetein” rounds out the album in a tornado of tradition and new sounds, sending you soaring on a barrage of drums and unpredictable waves of tempo.
With a groovy piano and bass combo that delivers a deep and full sound, JayWood adds some jazz to their psychedelic collage on “Pistachios.” Throughout the track, the piano goes from smooth and glossy to cutting like knives, showing a constant power in the percussion on JayWood’s tracks. The guitar equally flies off between neon and a nonstop bonfire, while the vocals try to fly in a calming glide. JayWood jumps on this multi-faceted approach in the vocals, going from this soft tone to matter-of-fact verse drops and right to shrieking calls, like hearing every end of someone’s personality fully personified as different singers on the same track, which he reflects in the accompanying music video.
Keeping her usual glamourous theatrics in the mix, Marina finds a modern pop mix to move forward on her latest album. Though it sometimes can feel like fitting into modern radio more than her own thing, the diva behind it all is still alive, kicking and painting in enough of her own colours to not get lost in trends too much. “Butterfly” lets the bouncy strings and overt pseudo-operatic antics fly, while she keeps the electronics reined in to avoid watering down the essence of her sound. Meanwhile “CUNTISSIMO” deep-sea dives into blasted-out synth bass, and lets Marina’s stylings play out like shimmering diamonds in a cave, as she rises in the chorus like a glorious “over it” spirit, begging you to be just like her. “Cupid’s Girl” merges her earliest albums with her dance beats, creating a growling banger filled with cartoonish hyperbole. There’s such a fun swirl of dozens of dance pop ideas on “I <3 YOU,” that it makes brash Brit vocals and more flamboyant Europop-tinged flavours all coalesce in perfect harmony.
Looking back with a musician’s paintbrush, Beta Trip gets lost in memories. After a charmingly rustic intro, the track opens into a warm and broad sound, feeling aesthetically like a perfect breezy drive through the country. In this way, the guitar lines cut through with elemental qualities, like beams of sun breaking through the clouds. Nostalgic with a pain, there’s always a sense of beauty, but with an inherent pain baked into it, giving the song a nice depth. Steve Lewin brings a lot of rich colours here, and manages to get a surprising mix of smooth and destroyed lyrical timbres in as well. With this in mind, it will be fascinating to see how future songs turn out as he adds a band down the road to flesh out each instrument that much more.
Though often happy to meditate on a singular emotion and slowly crack it into a million pieces, the semi-controversial Ethel Cain reaches for new frontiers on her latest record. There’s a crawling fury to “Janie” that never bursts open but instead creates this wallowing and burnt-out call to get lost in your pain until you finally come out the other side of it. She does finally explode on “Fuck Me Eyes” through all the glorious synths and crunchy guitar tones roaring here, as she gets lost in jealousy, lust and a subtle musical nod to Kim Carnes. Through an evolving eight-minute ballad, “Nettles” takes you through the whole palette of alt folk-country, getting every vocal tinge possible from Cain, in a cascading production that feels supernatural. And yet it’s that surreal hyper-reality that makes the song hit so hard, particularly as she identifies with the nettles in the poignant “to love me is to suffer me.” Though it can almost feel like it’s hitting certain predictable motions, it’s utterly satisfying to hear Cain break through walls on “Dust Bowl,” with that wrecking ball guitar and drum combo swinging at full force as the track opens up.
Click here for more music reviews from Owen Maxwell.
