The French electro-pop project finds itself stripped down to primary songwriter Anthony Gonzalez who worked on a large part of this album with live keyboardist Joe Berry. He also brought many of the live musicians he works with to aid in the sessions, which resulted in what is a somewhat difficult album to review, in the manner it washes by you like one wave of sound. The opening track serves more as an intro than a song that stands on its own. As the album progresses things get more song-focused, from grooving instrumental, to almost poppy, but too surreal for radio play. Oddly enough the more instrumental "Oceans Niagara' was the lead single.
"Us and the Rest" makes for a pretty fair case that this guy at the very least is smoking a decent amount of weed. "Earth to Sea" is the first song that grooves enough to really make someone wade onto the dance floor. An almost Abba-like haze is cast over this cyber-disco. His androgynously detached vocal coast around the synths. "Radio, Far, Gone" is like if Pink Floyd wrote "Wish You Were Here" for Euro pop radio in 2023. David Gilmore went to hit his weed pen when it was time to record the solo that never made it on the album. Sometimes the atmosphere is laid on so thick the song drifts by like a cloud, resulting in a few listens to digest. While it sounds cool I am not sure if a song like "Deceiver" is best served as an instrumental for the first five minutes.
The layered choral vocals on the title track feel like you are waking up from a dream before the funky bass comes in to counter balance the pan flutes. It's pretty much dance music for elves so the title is fitting. The atmosphere swallows the song whole before it is allowed to finish it's though. While cocaine was fuel for disco in the 70's , the modern take is for weed smokers. It drifts with detached indifference, until the chorus soars. Female vocals emerge here. The thickly layered clouds of sound, make the choruses less urgent. Not a deal breaker, but nothing really punches on this album. I would have also preferred more guitar in the mix.
"Sunny Boy" finds the more organic elements in a distant lethargy as they try to come into focus. This takes a minute and a half to happen, when it does things get much more upbeat. Female vocals help out when it comes to making the chorus bigger. "Kool Nuit" finds Kaela taking over the mic, for a multilayered drone that finds it's groove. The album closes with "Dismemberment Bureau". It is another subdued drift of ambiance with machine elves singing in the distance. This song is steeped in a deeper lethargy painted in pastels. I will give this album a 9, as it's an easy listen and pleasing to the ears, I would have to be waking up or really stoned to listen to it, but it works for what they set out to do.
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