Thursday, August 31, 2023

Soft Kill : Metta World Peace"








Things start with a thicker atmosphere, showing how this project is continuing to progress from being a post-punk band to a hazier vision of new wave that goes off into experimental excursions. By the second track they being to slowly make their way onto the dance floor. The elements that brought this music to life in the 80s are in play here. There is more of a Psychedelic Furs feel to the way the songs moves,. namely the breathy vocals gliding over the guitars. Things are not as dark and emotional, They way the guitar chords ring out reinforce my previous Furs comparison, along with the hushed urgency of the vocals. If you are going for this kind of nostalgic worship this is the way to do it. 

There is more of a witch house feel for "Past Life 2". The 808 like cadence of the drum programming makes it a club slapper for sure, though it is bathed in much greater ambiance than your typical booty shaker.  Evil Pimp drops some verses for "Paranoid" , it pretty much works, though the instrumentation under the rapping is too interestingly layer for something less than a sung melody so it feels like opportunities might be wasted here. Lyrically he is not doing anything all that interesting aside from the trap self deprecation. All problem and no solution. .

"Molly" finds the vocals taking on a more dramatic affectation to give things a more obvious wink to the Cure.  "Veil of the Pain" finds a moody Brit Pop take on dream pop leaning new wave, which is the mix of genres that that sentence turned it into. 'Fuck Boy" in a synth pop ditty that returns to the more Cure like tendencies. The drive of this song works better than the previous such tribute. This album wears it's influences on it's sleeves, but I like the direction it is headed and it helps since I am a fan of the bands this pays homage to . I will give this album an 8.5 for that reason.


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