i also somehow forgot to mention that i lost another grandparent late last year during this album's rollout. not because i'd forgotten, or that i hadn't made the connection—maybe it just hadn't settled in quite yet. but i do know that this album seems to be grieving something or someone, or all of it, grappling with loss and the nature of a soul, of a body, a person, the earth—where does it go? to here knows when?
it's all there in the music, the strings, alex's weeping guitar, victoria's processed sighs, driving around blasting "superstar," blown into the cosmos, "never meant to last." the finality but also a hope that there is something more, energy abounding, dispersing outward into infinity, atoms smashing against one another creating and un-creating us all, "and i can't believe in nothing just yet."
there were nights where i listened to chapters 1 & 2 on headphones and i felt all of this as alex's george harrison guitar lick on "esp" slides over you while the strings gently wrap you in a radiant warmth like a weightless blanket. and then "over and over" hits and the last 2 minutes could go on forever and ever like a gentle but firm, everlasting, embrace. the sequencer keeps repeating and the melody is ancient, like you've known it forever, like it comes from within you, the drums fold on top of one another as victoria sings the refrain softly, the vocoder voices swirling in a round, you are a human that deserves love and all is infinite.
beach house have soundtracked so many moments of my life.
saw them play just the two of them in an alleyway in baltimore to a hushed crowed at wham city fest, each person hanging on their every note, every word. "gila" soundtracked an unusually hot spring staying in a friend's apartment in long island city—there was no a/c and we played the song over and over again and laughed and sweat and danced in slow motion.
"teen dream" came out during a late college period of achy, who-am-i? ennui. i lost a grandparent a few months after losing another grandparent just a week before my birthday that year, right before they were coming to town on that tour. i had cancelled my plans to go to the show and was instead studying at home, feeling lost and incredibly sad, unable to concentrate on anything, so i said, "fuck it" and went to the show. they opened with "walk in the park," the song from "teen dream" that i couldn't stop listening to. there was some psychic energy searing into my brain as they walked out onstage that night, i just knew they were going to play that song first, and they did.
it was the balm that i needed. they always are! can't wait to see them again next week.
ILYSFM
i mean i don't think making a comparison between two pop artists working in similar lanes by default equates to pitting them against one another. i'm a big fan of both—they're unstoppable together on "tears."
i get what you're saying about the culture and identity politics in general, but to put all of that on shamir seems kinda unfair? if anything, they did not benefit from poptimism when they chose to forgo the pop route established on "ratchet," got dropped by XL and management, and self-released albums for a few years that got far less attention than if they had just stayed with XL and made "ratchet pt. 2."
also, they were 20 when they got signed to XL. expecting a 20 year old who was probably still figuring out their own identity to push back against the mechanisms of the whole industry and the music press in an effort to call out the shortcomings of identity politics and wokeness pre-trump seems idk unrealistic and like it's doing a lot of projection?
damn, kinda apples and oranges but this and "bunny" are legions beyond whatever charli's been doing with the "crash" rollout.
stoked for a new LP (or rumored EP).
ah, i haven’t seen any other proper reviews besides stereogum so far. the only other one i could find was the times—published today and gave 4/5 stars.
a red flag? lol.
i'm all for arca doing something spontaneous and different and sprawling and kinda messy—there's a possibility i may not love all of the kicks equally, but who cares? fuck it up, ale.
there's a fifth kick as well (or, there was.) it's unclear whether that's still happening as p4k called kick iiii the final installment based on the press release. however, people on the arca subreddit are adamant that kick iiiii is still coming because of what arca's said, various songs not appearing on the other tracklists, etc. etc. given that there are two weeks left ahead of the releases, and she's been dropping tracks each week to announce each subsequent installment, it'd make sense if the final announcement came next week.
it's always difficult to ascertain an arca project based on single releases. at the very least, it's going to be a huge amount of music, all very interesting sounding with definite highs and lows. not necessarily expecting all the remaining releases to be on par with self-titled or even kick i. it does seem as though she's ready to get them all out and move on, although like the previous commenter said that could be because so much time passed, relatively speaking, between kick i and the others. we'll see!
"a pop song that sounds like it’s melting itself down, perhaps trying to turn itself into circa-1980 post-punk in the process."
the song is quite literally european post-punk as it merged with new wave and italo around '82-'83. cate nailed it.
love the wrens and "meadowlands," but you'd think after 20 years they would have learned how to not make everything in the mix sound submerged in wet mud? idk.
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