Formed by frontwoman Channy Leaneagh and Ryan Olson, this Minneapolis quartet (or quintet, if we’re including producer Olson), is already attracting praise from noteworthy corners.
Give You The Ghost, Poliça’s debut album, gives us an impressive blend of RnB and electronica, threaded together with sweet, spectral vocals.
The album speaks of longing and despair, but also of a kind of strength. The feel is intense, with heavy drum beats, distortion and effects variously used to create a largely impersonal atmosphere. It’s like driving through a city at night – there’s energy, but also a sense of remoteness from it all.
Channy Leaneagh’s vocal performance – in conjunction with a heavy use of echo effects – calls to mind a one-woman chamber choir, performing in a cave.
Her words flow into one another, making themselves felt as a constant presence. Rather than being overwhelming though, this contrasts well with the insistent drum beats and other electronic bits and pieces.
Leaneagh’s choices in emphasis on particular words and syllables is also notable. It is sometimes as though she is emphasizing the sounds that she likes best, and those that fit best alongside the music, rather than those that necessarily make the most sense semantically. “If It sounds good/ I’ll repeat/ If it looks good to me/ I will make it mine,” she sings on ‘I See My Mother’
Give You The Ghost is ambitious, but never pretentious and lofty, but far from inaccessible. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon agrees, saying “they’re the best band [he’s] ever heard.”
Hyperbole or not, Poliça are good – by any estimation.
