ghostbells : " Catacoture"

This duo blends various sub-genres of dark electronic music into a moody but buoyant pop that feels like it is haunted by the 90s. The female vocals offer a childlike sing song cadance to their chant. Repetition is king here and works. The alluring singer makes watching the videos for this album more of an immersive experience than not having the visuals there; they seem to have videos for the bulk of the songs on this album. Though despite the lead single "Darkness Saves" not being the msot dynamic song of the album, it still works for what they are doing, and the entire album, even moments of more droning introspection, prove better the louder this is played. 

"Ghosts' falls on the more pop side of the the equation, and while the nuance is effective, the best song of the album might be the more energetic churn of 'Immortal Lovers' that finds her singing more aggressively from her higher register to create an almost Charli XCX feel to things. "the Color" is the first song I did not find a video for, it's a shame as this has perhaps the albums most punchy beat but it is also stepped pretty deep in an 80s synth sound while moving like the more atmospheric strains of 90s techno. Her vocals float like a texture of it. She breaks it up on the chorus by going into the higher, more shouted vocals approach applied to the previous song. You can hear a slight Grimes influence in some of the vocal phrashing. 

The last song finds what worked on the previous songs in motion here. Overall, this album fills a gap on the darker left-hand side of what Chvrches does, being more aware that they are purposefully going for a more goth sound. It is not over produced, in fact , underproduced as far as pop goes. I will round it up to a 10 and see how it grows on me. pst27