Apr 9, 2021
Telepatía, Kali Uchis
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Telepatía, Kali Uchis
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There are few things in this world as pleasurable as melting away to Cigarettes After Sex and their dreamy, oft shoegaze permeated ambient pop. While normally nostalgic and generally melancholic soothing, the El Paso group led by Greg Gonzalez (with his caressing voice), also makes its singular impression on us with its tender sexual innuendo. Their music takes us on encompassing, sensually arresting ventures into romantically bleary films, or sad fairy tales of idealistic love and anguished heartbreak. Cigarettes After Sex has been one of our favorites since they ensnared our hearts in a tight vice ahead of their self-titled debut album in 2017. They’ve since announced a follow up album named Cry and shared a gorgeous new song, perfectly entitled Heavenly. We retreat into the gently sighing swells of this new dreamy waltz as we fall in love with Cigarettes After Sex all over again. Their new album Cry is expected to arrive on October 25th via Partisan Records. Pre-order Cry, here. Stream/download Heavenly, here.
I Hate U, I Love U - Gnash
At first glance, the name Hall Of Horrors might evoke the macabre and eerie. But once you’ve submersed yourself in TEEN RAVINE’s new song, you’ll find yourself floating leisurely in dreamy, foggy slowclore bliss. The song is the Toronto ambient pop group’s first from their upcoming self titled debut LP. TEEN RAVINE said they tried to capture the disoriented feeling of waking up in the middle of the night and not knowing where you are, then struggling to fall back asleep as your mind wanders to uncomfortable places. They’ve certainly accomplished that with their phenomenal song. Hall Of Horrors is waking up to an empty bed when you still expect a warm body resting next to you. It’s loneliness and trudging through the rituals of daily life, while you desperately try to make it through to the next day. It’s bleary isolation and anesthetized disconnection, but expressed and felt in vivid technicolor. Hall Of Horrors is certainly a hypnagogic spectacular that blends some of Bon Iver’s vocoder treated vocals with some of Beach House and Cigarettes After Sex’s torpid atmosphere. TEEN RAVINE’s debut album is expected to arrive in October.
Ellie Goulding's New Album "Brightest Blue" Finds Self-Love and Reminds Us of Broken Things
Deep down in my heart I could hear this sprite-infused channeled resonance of golden light, so angelic it sounded like it was dipped in mithril. Then I just realized it was Ellie Goulding, somewhere in my soul, telling me she came out with a new album last week called “Brightest Blue”.
I fell in love with Ellie Goulding’s music back around 2010 when she was adding tracks to the Kick-Ass movie soundtrack and getting sampled by Chiddy Bang. Ten years later I see “Brightest Blue” is out, and think she must be on about her 11th album and 15th Grammy. Nope, it’s her fourth, which makes it worthy of swift, harsh, unrelenting public criticism.
Okay, we’ll go a little easy.
Listen along on the Soundcloud above if you like. This is a real-time reaction review, no prior research.
Sound good?
Headphones in. Volume UP. Enjoy.
Track One – Start featuring serpentwithfeet
I’ve seen a serpent with feet, and it looks more like the girlfriend who sexes your best friend in a car than an Ellie Goulding song. Ugh, dad jokes, but it’s too late to delete it now. Honestly, I just finished the new Weeknd album (I was late to the Weeknd party). This is like a Weeknd beat tattooed with Ellie’s voice.
Track Two – Power
I love the lyrical dynamic – Ellie says it’s about being tired of the superficial nature of today’s relationships, but at the same time, you’re caught in a riptide of sexual attraction with that person and can’t pull away. Based on the heavy (even if a little cryptic) self-analysis of the first two tracks, I’m curious to see what kind of pain she’s ready to dump out over the next 17 songs. Yeah, pain is entertainment – we’re a cruel species.
Track Three – How Deep Is Too Deep
I think Ellie Goulding sings about being used by a man and wanting it to be more than sex better than any other synth-pop songstress. The production, the conviction. I dig it.
Track Four – Cyan
This is a short interlude, but I talked about Julianna Barwick’s “Inspirit” on Monday, and the first 15 seconds of “Cyan” have that vibe of ambient, rising emotion.
Track Five – Love I’m Given
It’s clear to me that Ellie isn’t going for a drastic change in sound on the album. She stays true to herself with loaded content about relationships and vocals that sound like they were born in the Ferngully rainforest… That’s a compliment!
Track Six – New Heights
Another song reflecting on the need for a man to validate you, but here she focuses on the joy that results in finding fulfilment from self-love.
Track Seven – Ode to Myself
Melancholy, a slow song, but a slow song that only lasts two minutes. The songs have an anecdotal feel to them, like a thought pops up and she turns it into a two-minute slow-pop self-history lesson.
Track Eight – Woman
A natural progression of the earlier reflections on her pride in self-love. It blooms here into a full confession of feelings on her place in the world as a woman and a woman artist.
Track Nine – Tides
I’m so distracted by a song that chants “Take those elbows off the table”. I’m sitting on the laptop, making sure my elbows aren’t on the desk. I don’t think anyone has ever described Ellie Goulding as a schoolmarm, so…we’ll leave it that way.
Track Ten – Wine Drunk
Just think of the level of artistic freedom you’ve reached when you can lay on a couch and get drunk and think “I wonder if thousands of people will want to repeatedly listen to me talk about this drunk couch moment”.
Track Eleven – Bleach
…is not what people should drink to cure Covid-19. Or maybe some should. Anyway, I know the sentiment, the wish to scrub an ex from memory. But do you really want to?
Sadness is a bathtub people love to fill with memory and sit in for an hour until the water gets cold.
Track Twelve – Flux
I fully regret saying I looked forward to what kind of pain Ellie had to share with us. Sonically, this is my favorite. Lyrically, I’m a person who frequently splashes around in the things that were, and the things that could have been. Here, Ellie holds your head under the water.
Track Thirteen – Brightest Blue
Ellie says this song is her version of a “happy, peaceful place”. That may be, but it’s near impossible for the listener to feel happy after the last track asked you to look back on all your love and wonder why it’s no longer there.
Track Fourteen – Overture
An instrumental – dramatic, cinematic, operatic. Did not know the Russian opera was featured on this album. Oh, it’s not? Okay, carry on.
Track Fifteen – Worry About Me featuring Blackbear
Finally, an upbeat song! Kind of? A further commentary on the concept of the independent woman, Pop radio might be saturated with “Worry About Me” by September.
Track Sixteen – Slow Grenade featuring Lauv
When you listen to an album as a whole, you have to step back and look at the flow. It sounds like she got tired of wallowing in broken relationships for 14 tracks, and woke up to make a marginally perkier song about…broken relationships.
Track Seventeen – Close To Me feat. Diplo and Swae Lee
I have no idea what to expect from a Diplo feature on Ellie Goulding’s soundtrack to melancholia. There’s optimism here! She and Swae Lee sing about their fresh loves AKA future break-up song material.
Track Eighteen – Hate Me feat. JuiceWRLD
Solid song and great collab. Between Ellie and JuiceWRLD, but just elicits a sadness towards JuiceWRLD. It makes sense why they’d be attracted to working together – she makes Emo Heartbreak Pop – he made Emo Heartbreak Rap.
Track Nineteen – Sixteen
Some of us reflect on age 16 fondly, like Ellie, on the innocence of youth. Some of us reflect on age 16 as a transient wolf boy with webbed feet in the Northern Territories, tossed out by an angry den mother. Hey, we all live the best we can.
***
Brightest Blue is sad reflection dressed in Pop clothing. If your search is for an artist with “realness”, listen to Ellie. Musically, “Power” and “Flux” have earned playlist spots. Lyrically, some songs felt too close, and
I wanted to put this album in a locked box and throw it off the Brooklyn Bridge.
***
Artist Links:
Ellie Goulding website Ellie Goulding Insta
Songs by Ellie Goulding to get you bothered:
Your Song Human Keep On Dancin’
Enjoy the buzz? Leave a tip. Share it with a friend.
Ellie Goulding's New Album "Brightest Blue" Finds Self-Love and Reminds Us of Broken Things
Deep down in my heart I could hear this sprite-infused channeled resonance of golden light, so angelic it sounded like it was dipped in mithril. Then I just realized it was Ellie Goulding, somewhere in my soul, telling me she came out with a new album last week called “Brightest Blue”.
I fell in love with Ellie Goulding’s music back around 2010 when she was adding tracks to the Kick-Ass movie soundtrack and getting sampled by Chiddy Bang. Ten years later I see “Brightest Blue” is out, and think she must be on about her 11th album and 15th Grammy. Nope, it’s her fourth, which makes it worthy of swift, harsh, unrelenting public criticism.
Okay, we’ll go a little easy.
Listen along on the Soundcloud above if you like. This is a real-time reaction review, no prior research.
Sound good?
Headphones in. Volume UP. Enjoy.
Track One – Start featuring serpentwithfeet
I’ve seen a serpent with feet, and it looks more like the girlfriend who sexes your best friend in a car than an Ellie Goulding song. Ugh, dad jokes, but it’s too late to delete it now. Honestly, I just finished the new Weeknd album (I was late to the Weeknd party). This is like a Weeknd beat tattooed with Ellie’s voice.
Track Two – Power
I love the lyrical dynamic – Ellie says it’s about being tired of the superficial nature of today’s relationships, but at the same time, you’re caught in a riptide of sexual attraction with that person and can’t pull away. Based on the heavy (even if a little cryptic) self-analysis of the first two tracks, I’m curious to see what kind of pain she’s ready to dump out over the next 17 songs. Yeah, pain is entertainment – we’re a cruel species.
Track Three – How Deep Is Too Deep
I think Ellie Goulding sings about being used by a man and wanting it to be more than sex better than any other synth-pop songstress. The production, the conviction. I dig it.
Track Four – Cyan
This is a short interlude, but I talked about Julianna Barwick’s “Inspirit” on Monday, and the first 15 seconds of “Cyan” have that vibe of ambient, rising emotion.
Track Five – Love I’m Given
It’s clear to me that Ellie isn’t going for a drastic change in sound on the album. She stays true to herself with loaded content about relationships and vocals that sound like they were born in the Ferngully rainforest… That’s a compliment!
Track Six – New Heights
Another song reflecting on the need for a man to validate you, but here she focuses on the joy that results in finding fulfilment from self-love.
Track Seven – Ode to Myself
Melancholy, a slow song, but a slow song that only lasts two minutes. The songs have an anecdotal feel to them, like a thought pops up and she turns it into a two-minute slow-pop self-history lesson.
Track Eight – Woman
A natural progression of the earlier reflections on her pride in self-love. It blooms here into a full confession of feelings on her place in the world as a woman and a woman artist.
Track Nine – Tides
I’m so distracted by a song that chants “Take those elbows off the table”. I’m sitting on the laptop, making sure my elbows aren’t on the desk. I don’t think anyone has ever described Ellie Goulding as a schoolmarm, so…we’ll leave it that way.
Track Ten – Wine Drunk
Just think of the level of artistic freedom you’ve reached when you can lay on a couch and get drunk and think “I wonder if thousands of people will want to repeatedly listen to me talk about this drunk couch moment”.
Track Eleven – Bleach
…is not what people should drink to cure Covid-19. Or maybe some should. Anyway, I know the sentiment, the wish to scrub an ex from memory. But do you really want to?
Sadness is a bathtub people love to fill with memory and sit in for an hour until the water gets cold.
Track Twelve – Flux
I fully regret saying I looked forward to what kind of pain Ellie had to share with us. Sonically, this is my favorite. Lyrically, I’m a person who frequently splashes around in the things that were, and the things that could have been. Here, Ellie holds your head under the water.
Track Thirteen – Brightest Blue
Ellie says this song is her version of a “happy, peaceful place”. That may be, but it’s near impossible for the listener to feel happy after the last track asked you to look back on all your love and wonder why it’s no longer there.
Track Fourteen – Overture
An instrumental – dramatic, cinematic, operatic. Did not know the Russian opera was featured on this album. Oh, it’s not? Okay, carry on.
Track Fifteen – Worry About Me featuring Blackbear
Finally, an upbeat song! Kind of? A further commentary on the concept of the independent woman, Pop radio might be saturated with “Worry About Me” by September.
Track Sixteen – Slow Grenade featuring Lauv
When you listen to an album as a whole, you have to step back and look at the flow. It sounds like she got tired of wallowing in broken relationships for 14 tracks, and woke up to make a marginally perkier song about…broken relationships.
Track Seventeen – Close To Me feat. Diplo and Swae Lee
I have no idea what to expect from a Diplo feature on Ellie Goulding’s soundtrack to melancholia. There’s optimism here! She and Swae Lee sing about their fresh loves AKA future break-up song material.
Track Eighteen – Hate Me feat. JuiceWRLD
Solid song and great collab. Between Ellie and JuiceWRLD, but just elicits a sadness towards JuiceWRLD. It makes sense why they’d be attracted to working together – she makes Emo Heartbreak Pop – he made Emo Heartbreak Rap.
Track Nineteen – Sixteen
Some of us reflect on age 16 fondly, like Ellie, on the innocence of youth. Some of us reflect on age 16 as a transient wolf boy with webbed feet in the Northern Territories, tossed out by an angry den mother. Hey, we all live the best we can.
***
Brightest Blue is sad reflection dressed in Pop clothing. If your search is for an artist with “realness”, listen to Ellie. Musically, “Power” and “Flux” have earned playlist spots. Lyrically, some songs felt too close, and
I wanted to put this album in a locked box and throw it off the Brooklyn Bridge.
***
Artist Links:
Ellie Goulding website Ellie Goulding Insta
Songs by Ellie Goulding to get you bothered:
Your Song Human Keep On Dancin’
Enjoy the buzz? Leave a tip. Share it with a friend.
Listen/purchase: I'm Never Really Here by darvid thor
