Sometimes you hear something that doesn't really sound like anything you've heard before. You recognise the elements, but they fit together in a way that feels completely alien. That's how I felt listening to Before You Go. When I saw the cover art, I made some assumptions. I thought it was going to be noisy, maybe a bit punky.
And it is, slightly. But what surprised me was how soulful this music is. It has some of the aesthetics of post-punk, but the songs themselves removed from any aesthetics for the most part fit pretty firmly in the R&B camp.
But what are those aesthetics? Well, maybe the first thing I noticed when listening to the opening track, Indelible (In Color), was the vocal delivery. The vocals are weird. Quiet, strained, and fairly heavily processed I think. The singer, Tami Lance, sounds almost like a ghost. She is accompanied by fuzzy guitars, chunky bass guitars, electric piano, and loud drum machines.
The ghostly vocals sound distressed, especially when paired with lyrics that seem to point towards some sort of trauma. There's hints of misogynist and perhaps sexual abuse with lines like "He said You're not the only whore, your father's been here before", and the title itself suggests something that cannot be erased. It's a pretty evocative opener, the kind of thing that immediate grabs your attention.
Things get more upbeat with Bees with its fast electro-style drums and synth arpeggios, but there's still that sense of unease. Unfortunately, only that first song has published lyrics, but I think there's still a sense of darkness there. The following ballad, What About Tonight (Chances) is more overtly soulful, and it's really something special, I love it.
The thing is, I love all of it. There's something really scrappy about it that makes it feel so alive. I love the spookiness of near1997 - Upton pt.1 and the smoky jazz club feel of Chat House (encircled). Despite some of the themes on display, I do think there's a sense of fun to much of this album. You get the sense that Tami and her collaborator Sean M. Moore (who I'm assuming is the one with the bass in the cover art) really love playing music together, and they have a musical chemistry comparable to Jack and Meg White.
It's a great album. Perhaps not for everyone, but to me it sounds really unique and kind of electrifying.