Warpaint exist within a rarefied air within both the hip indie scene and the wider music community. This LA-based quartet made waves with their 2010 debut The Fool and have been leaving the people wanting more ever since. They have created an atmosphere of intrigue by withholding music like a petulant girlfriend withholds intimacy. They have contributed to a few tracks here and there to whet our appetites as a part of their prolonged aural striptease. With their hype left to simmer for the past four years it is now time to release their sophomore record. Can this new album possibly live up to the expectations they have been cultivating in their absence?
For those who are unfamiliar with them,
Warpaint make ambient post-punk with a gorgeous crystalline sheen.
This style was very popular a few years back when bands like The XX
hit the scene. What Warpaint do differently from those throwback
pioneers is detach their muse from the 1980s and drag it kicking and
screaming into the 21st century. Throw in a trip-hop
groove and a hint of psychedelic fog for flavour and you have a
recipe for something interesting. When you see that it is producers
Flood (U2, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins) and Nigel Godrich
(Radiohead) behind the desk the sonic gumbo starts to make a little
more sense.
Your enjoyment of Warpaint will
hinge on your opinion of breathy female vocals, gurgling bass synths,
and abstracted emotions. But luckily it is not all cool detachment
and hipster bait. Beneath the layers of inhuman prosthesis beats a funky
heart. In a different world ‘Hi’ could appear in a midnight dance
club, just as all the punters are coming down in unison.
It is an excellent example of valuing
mood over melody. From the outside it might seem chilly and remote.
When you are wading knee-deep in their brooding tunes it is easy to
be sucked in even if it is almost entirely devoid of hooks. Warpaint
is an album designed to be taken in as a whole. You are meant to dive
right in and get lost in the haze. This is both a band and an album
that fly directly in the face of the modern music paradigm, where
iTunes and Spotify do all the heavy lifting and real
honest-to-goodness albums are seen as relics of a bygone era.
Rating: B-
Recommended tracks: Love is to Die, Hi
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