Census Designated - Jane Remover: Review
Jane Remover
is hyperpop's answer to the singer-songwriter. Though she doesn't fit in with many of her more vibrant peers she's often been categorized as "digicore." Her previous album Frailty dropped back in 2021 and was met with a slow unfolding of critical acclaim from the electronic and pop music underground.
Review by Lav:
Compared to Frailty, which I was late to come around on and wasn't quite as big a fan of as some others, I felt all in on the hype for Census Designated. That began with a song Jane released last year that I liked quite a bit and it continued into immense enjoyment for everything she released this year in the lead-up to this project. Thankfully, those singles weren't a mirage. This album is actually as good as I hoped it would be, in fact, it's better.
This album opens and closes with merely fine moments. Cage Girl / Camgirl is a great introduction to so many of the motifs the album will deploy. Jane's girlish vocals, a combination of metaphorical and autobiographical lyrics, and a dissonant haze of reverb and distortion are all on display. On the song itself, I have to give it some credit for the use of impressively methodical repetition. The closing track Contingency Song was a strong single but it's even better on the album. The extremely stark contrast from one of the most poised and straightforward performances the album has to offer on the front end to the complete and utter breakdown on the second half is great. It's a hazy, dizzying blast of angst that feels appropriate to end the record on.
The second single from the album, Lips, blew me away at first and still does. It's packed full of incredibly hook refrains and I don't think I've stopped saying "you want crazy, I'll give you insane" since the first time I heard the song. Where it shines even brighter somehow is sonically. Once again it contrasts these gentler sweeter moments where Jane's vocals shine alongside the blistering distortion that inevitably takes over. That leads well into Fling one of the shortest songs on the record and also the most conventionally structured. Its driving guitars and overlapping layers of vocals make for this dizzyingly chaotic sound that is absolutely enticing.
Somehow, astonishingly, we haven't even gotten to the best material the album has to offer yet. Holding A Leech gets better every single time I hear it. The song might be the most emotionally potent moment on one of the most emotive albums I've ever heard. Despite how impressionistic of a writer Jane is you can feel the anguish in every single moment, every word, every syllable she sings. The dreamy shoegaze sound of the song is the perfect style of presentation for what she delivers and the final minute of the song is amazing. Backseat Girl seems to be the breakout deep cut from the record and it's so easy to see why. It's an anthem for all the backseat girls out there with the driving and car metaphors abound to prove it. The fact that she manages to deliver it while still feeling like a cohesive presentation of the idea at its core is amazing. The spiraling electronic breakdown coming off the twinkling guitar lines and Jane's raw vocals giving way to some of the loudest and most chaotic points on the album both preset such a magnificent dichotomy. The song is just flawless.
Idling Somewhere is an utterly marvelous piece of songwriting that tells a complete narrative in brilliant reflective detail. It begins with this burst of genuine confidence Jane displays in herself and how she presents herself to the world. But as the song goes on she's forced into this shame and vulnerability which manifests sonically as she has to try harder and harder to be heard over the buzzing distortion. It induces a deep anxiety in listeners, which is exactly the goal. It's another remarkable achievement.
And yet, only now can we talk about the most singularly mystifying piece of music on this album. The title track, Census Designated, manages to climb even higher. It was released as the second single and I truly think it's one of the best songs I've heard anywhere in 2023. The refrains are perfectly written and the hook is so dynamic and catchy but in a way that just reinforces exactly what the song aims to say. It's also perhaps the point on where the album blends together its sonic presentation with its narrative concept the very best. The results are so magnificent you just have to hear it for yourself.
Census Designated, the album, is remarkable. On this project, Jane Remover elevated from a curious sonic experimentalist to a remarkable storyteller and even world-builder. With her deeply vulnerable blend of rich metaphor and earnest self-biography Jane transplants listeners into her deeply compelling portrait of resolute transness. But where the album somehow reaches even higher is with its sonic ambitions. Jane's beautiful refrains and girlish vocals contrast perfectly with the layers of buzzing distortion and sonic haze. Despite sticking somewhat closely to this sonic format Jane manages to surprise and amaze over and over again with the instrumentals on this album.
What results is a combination of sonic and narrative experience that is rare to find anywhere in all of music. The album deploys its nuanced and detail-rich lyricism to paint in much broader strokes. It bucks the conventional clearer and more precise approach to narrative, instead building a world around itself. When the album begins it's coy, passing by fleeting glimpses into its vision of destitute, subversive girlhood, but by the time it ends, you are completely surrounded by it. 9/10
For more great trans music check out my review of Underscores' Wallsocket
