AMS album of the week - Warpaint

Warpaint, the eponymous follow-up to 2010’s well-received debut, The Fool, offers a different manifestation of the LA foursome’s brand of delicate rock music. It smacks of the same cohesion which _The Fool _was noted for, however, whereas The Fool was generally characterised by a restless streak, Warpaint presents a departure towards a more natural, slow burn. Indeed, it opens with a clue that this might be the case: a peek behind the abstracting mask of musical production at a quirk of their recording process. Warpaint are inviting us into their world rather than presenting it to us from the outside.

This idea continues seamlessly on the second track, Keep It Healthy, which further defines the approach the band appears to have taken when composing the album. They guide us on a journey through with gradual, gentle touches, settling on the most satisfying hooks and repeating them in an appealing way. By doing so, we are allowed more time to get the most out of each musical thread before the journey starts off again. Feeling Alright is another track which shares this quality and sounds as anthemic and uplifting as anything the band has produced as a result. The album’s melodies are generally delivered at a slow tempo which allows the sleepy, dreamy introspection of tracks like Drive and Teese, a stripped-down love-note of a song which may be the album’s most personal and heartfelt moment.

That’s not to say we ever stray into too indulgent or maudlin territory. Time is still found to show flashes of a mercurial edge reminiscent of The Fool on Hi and Disco//Very which stand in stark contrast to Biggy and _Go In _which respectively follow the two tracks. Hi, my personal favourite, kicks off with a drum beat and bass line so grippingly seductive that they wouldn’t sound out of place on a Portishead record. The single, Love Is To Die, also falls into this category, the urgent bass indicating a digression from the album’s main arc. These three songs importantly provide depth beyond the picture of peaceful contemplation which the album otherwise builds.

Warpaint is both artistically beautiful and easily listenable. It achieves the feat of delivering emotional extremes in gradual, friendly doses. Although it bears hallmarks of the same group of four which produced The Fool, it is musically more straightforward, which results in a more accessible but nonetheless rewarding album.