Soko - Feel Feelings (Review)
French singer-songwriter Soko returns after five years of relative silence to release her third studio album, a devastatingly honest venture into her tragic love life and headspace...
10th July 2020
Babycat
My Rating:
---
9.3/10
---
TRACK RATINGS (/10)
1. Are You A Magician? - 9
2. Being Sad Is Not A Crime - 7
3. Blasphémie - 8
4. Looking For Love - 8
5. Oh, To Be A Rainbow! - 9
6. Quiet Storm - 8
7. Don't Tell Me to Smile - 8
8. Replaceable Heads - 8
9. Let Me Adore You - 8
10. Now What? - 9
11. Time Waits For No One - 10
12. Hurt Me With Your Ego - 9
BREAKDOWN
Ambition: 8
Atmosphere: 10
Catchiness/Enjoyability: 9
Content/Ideas: 8
Emotion/Engaging: 10
Execution: 10
Production: 9
Structure: 9
---
Lyrics: 10
Vocals/Flows: 10
---
Total: 93
REVIEW
Soko's time away from music hasn't exactly been uneventful, having starred in two films; gone through a very public breakup and even had a child in this time, something that's instantly recalling a similar situation that Sharon Van Etten was in for her album Remind Me Tomorrow. Introductions aside, this new album of Soko's has been one I've had pretty consistently on repeat since discovering it in early August, its depressing themes and hypocritical sentiments solidifying it as not just a good album, but a wonderfully human experience.
Hitting hard right of the bat with the chokingly emotive "Are You A Magician?", Soko plays with contrasts between the love-stricken first verse and the destructive chorus, lines like "how did you disappear?" emphasised perfectly by her strained falsetto. In fact, it's Soko's voice that guides and dominates this album, allowing for the lyrics to take centre stage as they should. She may not have the most impressive range, and she certainly doesn't boast the kind of gorgeous voice of Bat for Lashes, nor the commanding cries of St. Vincent, but she manages to stand out from her peers nonetheless with how expressive she is. Her quiet, underrated style is probably best exemplified on the track "Replaceable Heads", a song in which she bares open her soul through the brutally honest verses, in which she chooses to talk rather than sing, getting her point across in a poetic way but without the need to wrap up her emotions in any way by singing.
Musically, this is not a particularly ambitious, spectacular or unique album, with pretty minimalist synths, guitars and drums contributing to a gentle kind of psychedelia, creating a blissful atmosphere that strikes the perfect balance between beauty and simplicity, never cluttered or challenging, but also never boring or unengaging. Now, there is one key instrument that I find plays an especially key role in keeping the instrumentals moving, that being the bass. Throughout the album, it's the bass grooves that help songs pick up momentum, and this is most evident on the masterclass in layering that is "Time Waits For No One", the album's obvious centrepiece and my personal favourite song. In short, the music serves as a gorgeous backdrop from which Soko is able to say what's on her mind, giving her the space she needs without ever feeling sparse.
It's clear that this album is an exploration into sadness, toxic relationships and bitterness, a foray into the mind of a woman who's been left behind and left confused, the pain showing through the fizzling moments of background synths and effects whilst the main instrumentals plod on, holding onto pretty melodies whilst the dark atmosphere swirls dangerously close, and I think there's definitely a significance in that. The atmosphere is just as important as the lyrics, as without it I doubt the sentiment of the album would land as it does, almost claustrophobic in how inescapable it is, and that's why this album is excellent: when I say that everything Soko is feeling is conveyed to me through the music, I don't mean the emotions of pain and sadness, but the more precise way that she is reacting to the world around her, as well as to herself. It's because of this that the album's strengths aren't simply that it's mature, emotional and self-aware, but that I'm able to empathise with her along the way.
TRACK RATINGS (/10)
1. Are You A Magician? - 9
2. Being Sad Is Not A Crime - 7
3. Blasphémie - 8
4. Looking For Love - 8
5. Oh, To Be A Rainbow! - 9
6. Quiet Storm - 8
7. Don't Tell Me to Smile - 8
8. Replaceable Heads - 8
9. Let Me Adore You - 8
10. Now What? - 9
11. Time Waits For No One - 10
12. Hurt Me With Your Ego - 9
BREAKDOWN
Ambition: 8
Atmosphere: 10
Catchiness/Enjoyability: 9
Content/Ideas: 8
Emotion/Engaging: 10
Execution: 10
Production: 9
Structure: 9
---
Lyrics: 10
Vocals/Flows: 10
---
Total: 93
---
Comments
Post a Comment