Does anyone remember dreams in their entirety? Even when awaking from a particularly blissful dream, or a chest-pounding, frightening nightmare, we tend to recall only the most poignant, delicious, or disturbing moments, while letting our memory gloss over the rest.
It’s fitting to apply the same treatment to the misty, meandering dream that is Warpaint’s sophomore record.
The all-girl four-piece have retained the coolly removed, post-punk aesthetic that shaped their 2010 debut album The Fool, but they’ve cloaked their second record in layers upon layers of eerie, moody synth, fragile vocals, and melodic basslines. The effect creates a phantasm of sound that plays out like a long, hazy reverie.
The apex of this dream narrative can be found in ‘Love Is To Die’, a swaggering, r n’ b influenced number driven by Stella Mozgawa’s trip-hop drumming and the fuzzy, shaking rhythm of ‘Biggy’.
In addition, there’s a very muted, Radiohead-esque tint to the album’s stronger tracks, which makes sense given that the mix is the work of Nigel Godrich – of, yep, you guessed it, Radiohead fame.
The downside to the album is that there’s so much spacey sonic wandering going on that the group become a bit lost. Tracks like ‘Hi’, ‘Teese’, and ‘Son’ are the sleepwalking moments – just too breathy and too dreamlike to really stick.
The best approach to Warpaint’s ethereal second offering is to treat it like a dream; retain the best bits and don’t try too hard to hold on to the rest.
Listen to ‘Biggy’ from Warpaint here:
