Jessica Pratt, ‘Here in the Pitch,’ May 3, 2024
Jessica Pratt’s fourth studio album, Here in the Pitch, is deeply rooted in the “hippie era” of Los Angeles, drawing inspiration from the darker side of the Californian dream. Pratt’s fascination with figures emblematic of this era’s seedy history is evident throughout the album. The title itself, Here in the Pitch, suggests a duality, referring both to absolute darkness and to bitumen, the oily black substance that bubbles to the surface in places like LA’s La Brea Tar Pits. The album explores themes of ambition, enemies, dread, and desolation, often cloaked in Pratt’s peculiar vocal delivery. The lyrics are cryptic and elliptical, offering a sense of mystery and introspection. For instance, the opening track Life Is begins with the line, “Life is, it’s never what you think it’s for,” setting the tone for the album’s exploration of life’s uncertainties and contradictions. Pratt’s lyrics in Here in the Pitch are characterized by their inscrutability and poetic nature. The album’s lyrical content often juxtaposes light and dark, sweetness and melancholy. Lines such as “I want to be a vestige of our senses free” in World on a String and “Some people chip away time more than they understand an open hand” in By Hook or by Crook are typical of her enigmatic style. These lyrics, delivered in Pratt’s low register, offer a sense of formality and solace, even as they remain cryptic. Musically, Here in the Pitch is a seamless melding of Pratt’s lo-fi beginnings and her growing comfort with studio production. The album features a range of instruments, including flute, saxophone, glockenspiel, and timpani, which add depth and complexity to the songs. This expanded instrumentation gives the album a prismatic glow, making it one of Pratt’s most fascinating and repeatable sets to date. The album’s composition is marked by its eerie tone, with moments of playful percussion and bossa nova stylings lightening the overall mood. Pratt’s increasingly recognizable tender strums and strange vocalizations are ever-present, creating a sound that is both dense and distant.
Some evil innocence, wild century can’t express
A gesture left in summer’s mind
Autumn’s come to find
And it’s the end of the dreams againSunk in the middle
Our crimes are just a rhythm on thе west and you
Argue on my life
Fontaines D.C., ‘Romance,’ Aug 23, 2024
Fontaines D.C.’s fourth studio album, Romance, is a thematic exploration of love, idealism, and existential reflection amidst chaos. The album’s title track sets the tone with a haunting atmosphere, created by a descending riff, distorted synths, and intense vocal delivery from frontman Grian Chatten. The lyrics, “Maybe romance is a place/For me/And you,” introduce the album’s central theme of love as a complex and multifaceted experience. The album’s themes are further explored through its 11 tracks, each offering a unique perspective on love and idealism. From the introspective Horseness Is The Whatness to the grunge-inspired Death Kink, Romance captures a sense of urgency and existential reflection. The album’s exploration of love is not limited to romantic relationships but extends to broader concepts of devotion and identity. Romance continues the band’s tradition of weaving intricate narratives that are crafted with an eye toward existential themes, offering poignant reflections on the human condition. In Here’s the Thing, Chatten pleads, “To be anesthetized/And crave emotion,” capturing the band’s struggle with numbness and the desire for genuine feeling. The track Favourite features the line, “I can claim the dreamer from the dream,” which evokes a sense of nostalgia and longing. Romance represents a significant departure from the band’s earlier work. While their previous albums, such as Dogrel (2019) and Skinty Fia (2022), were rooted in gritty post-punk, Romance embraces a more expansive and experimental approach. The album incorporates elements of Britpop, gothic Americana, and ’90s alt-rock, creating a sound that is both familiar and refreshingly new. The composition of the album is marked by its dynamic range and versatility. Tracks like Starburster and Favourite showcase the band’s ability to blend different genres seamlessly. Starburster, for example, takes on a trip-hop fluidity and employs synths and a buzzing bass to create a cinematic atmosphere, while Favourite follows a straightforward song structure reminiscent of Cage the Elephant. This diversity in sound is a testament to the band’s growing maturity and willingness to experiment.
Taylor Swift, ‘THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY,’ Apr 19, 2024
I look in people’s windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
They have their friends over to drink nice wine
I look in people’s windows
In case you’re at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, is a sprawling, audacious, and ambitious project that delves deep into the singer-songwriter’s personal and emotional landscape. This double album, subtitled The Anthology, features a total of 31 tracks, making it one of Swift’s most extensive works to date. The Tortured Poets Department is billed as a concept album exploring the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Swift began writing the album shortly after completing her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), and continued developing it during her Eras Tour in 2023 & 24. The album serves as a “lifeline” for Swift, reflecting her heightened fame and media scrutiny during this period. Like always, the thematic content of the album is deeply introspective, focusing on Swift’s public and private lives. The songs detail tumult and sorrow through motifs of self-awareness, mourning, anger, humor, and delusion. The Tortured Poets Department can be characterized as a post-breakup record, where Swift is trying to work out how emotional violence occurs. The album uses melodrama as a narrative device to celebrate emotional vulnerability, sharing Swift’s innermost, raw, unfiltered revelations.
Swift’s lyricism has always been a focal point of her music, and The Tortured Poets Department is no exception, featuring some of her most unvarnished and painful lines to date. The album’s title itself calls attention to her poetic prowess, inviting listeners to dissect and interpret each track as one might analyze the works of literary giants like Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson. The album’s storytelling straddles the line between confessional and fictional, drawing on Swift’s country music roots to explore detail-heavy narratives. The opening track Fortnight sets the tone with its abstract and hauntingly beautiful lyrics about two married neighbors having an affair over a fortnight, referencing Swift’s brief romance with The 1975’s Matty Healy. Tracks like But Daddy I Love Him and Fresh Out The Slammer use vivid imagery to depict tumultuous relationships and emotional imprisonment. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? is one of the album’s most vicious tracks, referencing gallows and likening Swift’s childhood to an asylum. So Long, London reframes her love for English actor Joe Alwyn, and Florida!!!, featuring Florence + the Machine, explores themes of escape and new beginnings.
Musically, The Tortured Poets Department is a minimalist synth-pop, folk-pop, and chamber-pop effort with rock and country stylings. The album was produced by Swift’s regular collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, who bring their distinct sensibilities to the project. Antonoff’s sharp production contrasts with Dessner’s softer, more tender approach, creating a dynamic and varied sonic landscape. The composition is largely mid-tempo, driven by a mix of synthesizers and drum machines with piano and guitar. The album’s sound vacillates between the downtempo pop of Midnights and the delicate pop-folk of Folklore, creating a muted aesthetic that complements the album’s introspective themes. The album’s aesthetic draws from dark academia, adding a layer of intellectualism to its presentation. The album’s production often takes a backseat to the lyrics, allowing Swift’s words to take center stage. This approach creates a raw and unguarded listening experience, with the music almost incidental compared to the lyrical content.
So if I sell my apartment
And you have some kids with an internet starlet
Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon
like it never happened
Could it be enough to just float in your orbit
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses
Cooler in theory but not if you force it
To be, it just didn’t happenSo if you want to break my cold, cold heart
Say you loved me
And if you want to tear my world apart
Say you’ll always wonder