Fucking Bliss - American Pleasure Club: Review

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American Pleasure Club

formerly known as Teen Suicide is the Baltimore based indie project fronted by Sam Ray that has been putting out experimental and low-fi music for the better part of this decade. On the back of a studio album and two well received EPs re-released as a set Teen Suicide made a name for themselves in the world of indie music. They released their most popular album in 2016 with It's The Big Joyous Celebration, Lets Stir The Honeypot on Run For Cover records before announcing the name change to American Pleasure Club the next year. Since then the band has released three projects under the name and dropped three singles prior to the release of Fucking Bliss


Review By Lavender:
I fell in love with Teen Suicide in 2016, and it wasn't the old stuff that really did it for me it was Lets Stir The Honeypot that turned me from a Sam Ray skeptic into a devoted fan overnight. So in 2018 when the band transitioned into American Pleasure Club and Kitty became a member, who I've always had a soft spot for and will get a review of her own soon, I was very excited to see what was coming, Not even my highest expectations for the band could quite match the mixtape/album the dropped in early 2018, the explosive, experimental and passionate A Whole Fucking Lifetime Of This. It blew me away and is my favorite project from the band to date, cracking the top 50 in my albums of the year list last year and leaving me excited for the future of Sam Ray and company, which seems clearer than ever after hearing Fucking Bliss. 

This album seems to me to be the most experimental I've heard the band get, as many of the elements of this album are blended so deeply into its aura that they are almost indistinguishable at first listen. But after a handful of revisits the clarity here will reveal itself, at least for most of the songs. What Kind Of Love? was the first single from the project and it opens up with some ice cold keys that explode into a huge wail of distortion. The substance of the song becomes so lost in the blur that it ends up being more about the greater parts combined than the individual elements themselves and in that regard this track is pretty satisfying. Even though at first I was turned off by the lack of substance I have grown to appreciate its dramatic build and very cool final moments. 

This was followed by the second single, and opening track of the album The Miserable Vision. It opens up with a haunting vocal passage gently laced over a minimalist instrumental followed by a absolutely insane explosion into a distorted meltdown with huge bombastic drums and a great sonic consistency throughout. It serves as a great introduction to this brief project that lets you know straight away what you're in for. The third single, which was my favorite at the time and proved to be my favorite song on the album is the bombastic Ban This Book. The song alternates between distant moments of eerie whispered vocals and deafening explosions of distorted sound but keeps a very sharp driving rhythm guiding the song throughout and progressing it in a way that in unbelievably satisfying and made it a song I couldn't help returning to over and over again. 

That isn't even all of the tracks I enjoyed on the album either. Let It Go Out is my favorite of the more lowkey songs as it dips its toes into borderline ambient. Its a slow and steady wander through some sharp and beautiful sounds that has a fantastic climax in its final moments. Hello Grace is a song that takes a similar approach but I didn't find quite as interesting when all was said and done. Dragged Around The Lawn is my favorite of all the non-single tracks as the pitched down vocals and killer lyrics are a huge highlight that some of the other tracks are missing, The emotion of Sam Ray's performance is absolutely captivating and paired next to some great beat work and rattling percussion this song stands out as a clear highlight. 

Unfortunately despite the short length of this project there were still two tracks that didn't really resonate with me. It's Everything To Me is on the extreme end of the quiet and abstracted songs and one that even after listening over and over again I can barely make sense of anything that is going on. With it all being s intangible there isn't much that can capture you or make you want to come back and listen again. The closing track Faith has a similar issue with a lack of structure that makes it feels like these sounds are simply falling together randomly. Despite the fact that I enjoy the lyrics quite a bit you'll have a very difficult time hearing any of them in the strange mix. I think there is a pretty good song here but it just needs to be mixed in the right way so that the listener can understand what's going on.

Fucking Bliss is a short and strange dive into the musical world of Sam Ray that has some very memorable moments but falls into some strange pitfalls. Parts of this album that I even enjoyed or praised in my review can use some better mixing because it is clear that there is a lot going on in these songs and the way the sounds blend together is captivating. But when so much of it is so quiet or hidden that it becomes impossible to tell whats going on some of the moments lose their luster. Even given that there is some excellent songwriting and fantastic performances across this album and plenty of tracks worth returning to. 7/10

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