Icons EP - Two Shell
Two Shell is an electronic music project that has been turning heads this year with their new EP and also their anonymity with controversial live performances and evocative interviews. I've seen many, including myself, compare their early buzz to that of Sophie, A.G. Cook and the early P.C. Music scene, though projecting them to have that level of quality or impact is more than presumptuous. But all of that was mainly just to draw attention to the music and once you actually crack down into the songs on this new EP of theirs, they're pretty good. While I wouldn't call their loud and brash take on house music and electronica all that groundbreaking there is a distinct industrial and garage messiness to their style that stood out to me immediately the first time I heard a song like Pods. I will say that once I got to listen to this EP in full I was surprised by how much more polished the rest of the songs were as they take a much more wonky and humorous style. Thankfully Two Shell are still pretty good at pulling this off with heavily digitized samples all of which sound like Portal characters and some of which actually are littering these songs and injecting them with heavy-handed personality. While the hype for Two Shell might be getting a bit out of control in the underground these five songs certainly do enough to get me immediately interested in the future of the project. 7/10
Save Me - Empress OfFor those that follow pop music the work of Lorely Rodriguez as Empress Of is nothing new and this EP follows her third studio album back in 2020. The project kicks off with three singles that she released earlier this year but the one that really grabbed me is the title track and opener Save Me, one of the most exciting Empress Of songs I've ever heard. The bouncy instrumental and absolutely infectious hook make for a pretty irresistible combo and I'm not surprised it ended up as the marquee song of the project. Unfortunately the rest of the project never really reaches that level of excitement even though it does operate with a certain level of consistent poise. The production here is always very crisp and does a good job supporting Lorely's vocals but those vocals are often understated for the moment, a consistent complaint I've had about her singing for pretty much her entire career. Also these songs just don't have refrains the lodge themselves in your head in anywhere near the same way as the opener. Thankfully I can also say there isn't really anything terrible on the EP and can therefore recommend it to anybody who just absolutely can't get enough pop music because it has the fundamentals down. Aside from the title track though I find it hard to imagine any of these songs sticking with you past 2022, or even past the next few months. 6/10
The Besnard Lakes Are The Prayer For The Death Of Fame - The Besnard Lakes
Long-running Canadian indie project The Besnard Lakes returned last year from a hiatus and while I heard their comeback album I didn't get the chance to review it. Consider this my apology, covering this EP a year later which I presume was conceptualized and recorded in the same sessions as last year's record. While the EP is just three tracks it stretches out all the way to nearly 28 minutes, mainly thanks to the mammoth 16-minute closer, which also happened to be the only song of the bunch that wasn't released as a single. I certainly can't complain about the length though because it's the middle and shortest track that I find to be the least satisfying. After a chilly wandering indie rock opener, we get into some straight-up indie pop on A Jacket For A Rainy Lady that sounds like The New Pornographers at their least inspired. The real meat of the EP comes on the expansive final track Silver Shadows which takes its time but for a good reason, actually getting off to a pretty good start. While I do think the core of the song is just okay at best and really takes up more time than it needs to I think it transitions into the long ambient outro well and I can't really complain too much about the song as a whole. This EP is fine, hardly the most memorable thing the band ever did and if I was recommending somebody try this out or the album that preceded it, I'd probably go with the latter. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have its fair share of worthwhile moments and a unique collection of styles displayed across its runtime. 6/10
