release date: Feb. 9, 2024
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,95]
producer: Dave Sitek
label: Loma Vista - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Whispers in the Echo Chamber" - 3. "Everything Turns Blue" - 5. "The Liminal" - 6. "Eyes Like Nightshade" - 8. "Unseen World"
7th studio album by Chelsea Wolfe following Birth of Violence (Sep. 2019) is her first album on Loma Vista and it also introduces a certain change in producer-collaboration as most of her former releases were mostle made with co-composer Ben Chisholm, who remains as one her stable collaborators (since 2012) together with drummer Jess Gowrie and mastering engineer Heba Kadry (both since 2017).
A new producer and a new label doesn't mean much new, though. And despite the fact that Wolfe has been influenced by various styles, this new collection of songs still stand with feets buried in a darkwave arena. That said, Wolfe has often sought to colour her songs from new perspectives - with twists of electronica, stronger influnced by / or with the absense of industrial rock, and in that sense her new album doesn't appear as something entirely different. Wolfe belongs to the dark - no doubt about that, and she usually makes her songs with Chisholm - here credited as co-composer, keyboardist and for drum programming. And especially the drum aspect is what basically makes this a different breed than her (brighter) 2019-album. Drums are up-front, energetic pulsating, and attract attention on an album that takes Wolfe back on an industrial, electronic path of dark colours.
The album has mostly been met by acclaim as an original output from an innovative artist, who never seem to walk on already known paths. To me, it doesn't quite invite me in, and I think my reluctant stance has to do with the incoherency I find on the album. It's both strongly electronic with synths and programming providing a new side-step to her darkwave tones, and at the same time it bonds with industrial rock - it wants to be 'hard', and then Wolfe has makes attempts pop-imagery, nicely placed hooks of sweetness, which makes it difficult to digest. It's like, she tries too hard to make her music grandiose and by that she unfortunately also loses contact with authenticity. Is it a spicy treat, or, just a light dessert? I dunno!! And the different flavours do not meet one another that well, I think. And ultimately, Wolfe has been better.
[ 😮allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Exclaim! 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, Uncut 3,5 / 5, 👉PopMatters 3 / 5 stars ]
