gaydubstep replied to your post: I TRIED HOLDING A “NO SMI...
I CAN TB ELEIVE OUY
IM SOOOO BAD I ... I AM AT ODDS W/ MYSELF BC I LITERALLY CANT HOLD A STRAIGHT (gay) FACE FOR MORE THAN FIVE SECONDS, and even if my eyes are closed and im not FUCKIN looking at my competition, i smile still, OH MY GOD, hlep me.
Bio: Paige Stanley is a producer who usually makes music under the moniker hrmnzr. This is her first album released under her real name.
Favorite tracks: oceans, portrait of young woman looking to her right, japanese garden on a rainy day
Least favorite tracks: a sad song about relationships, a small and quiet finale
Thoughts: exhibition of the heart is exactly what it sounds like it's going to be. That is, it's hrmnzr shedding her pseudonym and making something much more on a personal, heart-to-heart level. What this means for you, the listener, is a lot of mellow, dreamy tracks with raw, emotional vocals.
Unfortunately, the raw, emotional vocals are often too raw to compensate for their emotional content. They work, but you gotta be willing to forego attachment to vocal talent to appreciate what Paige is trying to tell you. Ocean finally gets the vocal balance right. Soft, processed, ethereal vocals that belong in these sort of melancholic, downtempo tracks. rooms (featuring crownley) also makes the vocals work in the favor of Paige's composing ability.
Alright, alright, enough about the vocals. They're not the only thing happening on this album. Not even the primary component. The primary component is really small, timid ambient tracks. "Small" and "timid" being terms of endearment, of course. Listening to this album feels more like opening and reading Paige's diary than it does listening to one of her albums. I could see this being a great breakup album, and I'll definitely return to it the next time I'm feeling melancholic.
One last thing I'd like to mention about eoth is how musically hard-to-pin-down of an album it is. Paige's music has always been difficult to tag, but the genre of this album is really unclassifiable. Some of these tracks sound like ambient, some more of a downtempo beat, some resembling breakcore, some having the reverberated synths and sampling of vaporwave, some feeling more shoegazey/dream-poppy a-la M83, or more psychedelic a-la Hinkstep. I believe this originality of musical style in eoth is part of what makes the album so interesting.
Album art: Paige's usual drawing style brought into sort-of nostalgic light emphasizes the stronger emotional charge in this album compared to her other works. portrait of young woman looking to her right.
SCORE: 7
More information at: http://paigestanley.bandcamp.com, http://soundcloud.com/paigeirl
AN: Special thanks to Paige for giving me an advanced copy of this album so I could get the review out faster!
