Rapturously crafted, literary, smart, dream pop by the Philadelphia band fronted by singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, this fourth LP also has a darker, more melancholic, introverted hue than her previous much lauded, extrovert LP Jubilee, this time inspired by myths, poetry and fiction on thematic cycles of temptation, transgression and retribution. Musically perhaps there’s a dissonance between the flavour of themes and the light, breathy sweetness of sound, although it is also inventively experimental with a wealth of instruments coming to the fore. Her number one influence, Björk, always in indirectly in evidence. Highlights include the beautiful opener Here Is Someone; then Orlando In Love, inspired John Cheever’s riff on Orlando Innamorato, an unfinished epic made up of 68 ½ cantos by the Renaissance poet Matteo Maria Boiardo — the hero is a well-meaning poet who parks his Winnebago by the sea and falls victim to a siren’s call; the shoegazey viscous Honey Water about the quiet rage of a woman married to an unfaithful man; the percussive, tuneful indie pop of Mega Circuit, and then after a journey variously through folk, indie and country tones, the gentle, rather gorgeous closer Magic Mountain with delicate strings including cello, and inspired by the Thomas Mann’s famous novel of the same name. Out on Dead Oceans.
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