While his delivery can sound all too at ease at times, Troye Sivan has proven he can drop the most heavenly sounds on the tracks he releases. This sublimely produced record doesn’t always bring the energy, but it will certainly show you the heavens all the same. There’s a nostalgic feel to the blown-out and dreamy rolling tones of “She’s the Best” that makes Sivan’s disaffected delivery feel more in awe than lazy, causing the whole song to feel like relaying memories to a therapist. The production is divinely smooth on the crisp aesthetics of “Canada Dry,” with Sivan gliding through the song like a roller-skating angel. You can feel the merging of 90s production with more modern art-pop savvy on “Party,” as Sivan takes a simple song idea and elevates it to an intoxicating level of texturing. The tumbling drums of “Love So Big It Hurts” give a sense of grandeur to the already shimmering pianos, making the track feel like a surreal trip through love itself.
While it’s no doubt unexpected to hear Rosalía teaming up with Fontaines D.C., the collaboration is strangely seamless, and evokes, of all things, a Bond-theme energy. Through smoky, Western-tinged, guitar rolls and dusty drums, vocals fly back and forth with a smoky cool. Strings are brooding, the guitars growl like a gunslinger is about to emerge, and the drums build into weapon-like points. Bond or not, the song has a constant cinematic edge to its lyricism and overall sonic magic, bringing you closer to its fiery intensity in how they all combine into one vivid edge.
Like a stripped-down answer to Nine Inch Nails, Adult DVD is a no-frills, demented, dark, synth-pop wonder that leaves no prisoners. Bringing their own flair of snarky, grimey, and otherwise over-the-top dance-rock, the band crafts a ballet of machine-like fury and raw human angst into one sound. “Coffin Dodger” brings out the jagged edges, spinning in the pit with a fiery electronic edge and kinetic percussion, sending you on a rollercoaster. The grinding power of “Jesus Christ Superstar” ramps up with the rock undercurrents, though it loses a touch of its impact as the electronics get shoved to the back of the more generic choruses. Leaning more to the sleaze of Viagra Boys, “Cowboy on Aisle Three” is a thrashing and roaring beast, feeling like it’s constantly on the verge of tearing through reality itself. The most English influences come through on the long flow of “Real Tree Lee,” as the sink and rise blend with a deep bass sound to recall some amazing British electronic production.
There’s a mesmerizing quality to the way Judeline moves between a circus-like waltz and dembow drive on her latest single. This combination can often feel like you’re hearing two worlds trying to coexist, or two sides of a personality harmonize, and it’s in both the synergy and dissonance that the track finds its unique beauty. Though it gains a lot in its percussive break, with a dynamic energy flying out of Judeline through her layered shouts and a rap-like shift in the vocals. This gives an even more riotous tone to the final chorus, as it comes back in like a punk rally cry.
Straddling the line between quirky fun and pop you can sink into easily, Remi Wolf is a rare genuine personality with pop that feels radio-ready from the jump. There’s so much character baked into every vocal and lyric of this record that the music often gains its hues sooner rather than later. As it builds its confident swinging beats, “Bottle” sets the record off on a sunny high, slowly opening the guitars from warm and clean, to overpoweringly bright and irradiated. Even with an inherently familiar nature to the infectious drive of “Champagne,” Wolf instils driving harmonies that feel so impassioned and immediate that it’s easy to feel like the song is pouring directly out of her heart. Wolf’s charisma lends a sweet quality that elevates the soft jazzy quality of “Moon So High” into something more romantically pop, and even gives a bit of shine back to John Mayer that we haven’t seen in a minute. And while it doesn’t have the same uplifting tone, “I Won’t Cry” has Wolf shift to pained wails to the ether, for a spacey, but devastating ballad.
