Another free album I managed to procure, this one is also.. not very good. I caught onto this artist by way of her Youtube celebrity making video for her single "What's a Girl To Do?" The video, while cool, is cool in all of the most basic ways. Every signifier for "hipster" music is there. Animal masks ala Animal Collective/The Knife/everyone? Check. Bike riding ala The Cool Kids? Check. A spectacularly choreographed and seemingly low budget shot video encompassing one shot ala Feist? Check. It all works very well, but in an ultimately shallow way. One likes it and then feels guilty for liking it. Not in the guilty pleasure way that is obvious, but a far more insidious way that is slowly permeating pop's growing intermingling with underground/art culture.
It all makes sense then that it would be paired up with music equally hollow. On first listen, the single and much of the album is a near inventive (circa 1995) soundscape evoking basically... Bjork and trip hop of a lesser-than-Portishead caliber. Actually, on subsequent listens, these comparisons only sink in further. The songs are spooky and a bit pretty but ultimately sound like exercises in being Spooky and Pretty. Most of the quirkiness of this release seems manufactured, and while it is made well... it still seems... made. Had this come out years ago, I would just throw it in the bin with lesser trip hoppers like the Sneaker Pimps and Mono. Highbrow art for the middle to low brow crowd.
Grade: C+
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