I Break Horses // Chiaroscuro

The chin-stroking muso demon that sits on my shoulder says there's no better way to sound like you know absolutely fuck all about music than to vomit up the proclamation: "I love the beats!". But I don't give one, the idea of "knowing about music" makes me want to shove a fret-board down my throat and a glass of water on your MacBook Pro. So the first thing that struck me about this record is that I really love the beats. For real. Maria Lindén of I Break Horses can just sprinkle those beats all over my record collection whilst I dance tippy-toed on the layers of reverbed vox, so ethereal I'd actually be floating in mid air. There's the whole 80s synth bandwagon thing which is hard to make progressive and exciting, but this is more Blue Velvet than Cocktail, if you catch my drift. We're looking at layered soundscapes, cinematic in style with a touch of Robyn about them. 'Denial' has a touch of Fever Ray about it too except it's (sorry) far less interesting. 'Weigh True Words' is surely destined to be a single, it's catchy as hell - but what the hell do I know about music hey? This record sure is lovely though and actually I'd like to play it super loudly in a disused church or on my headphones whilst walking through the Sonoran Desert...alone. This is a real album, a collection of songs painstakingly engineered to be listened to, one after the other, like a loop of slick beats. Geez, I love the beats. 7/10 Rosie ArnoldThe chin-stroking muso demon that sits on my shoulder says there's no better way to sound like you know absolutely fuck all about music than to vomit up the proclamation: "I love the beats!". But I don't give one, the idea of "knowing about music" makes me want to shove a fret-board down my throat and a glass of water on your MacBook Pro. So the first thing that struck me about this record is that I really love the beats. For real. Maria Lindén of I Break Horses can just sprinkle those beats all over my record collection whilst I dance tippy-toed on the layers of reverbed vox, so ethereal I'd actually be floating in mid air. There's the whole 80s synth bandwagon thing which is hard to make progressive and exciting, but this is more Blue Velvet than Cocktail, if you catch my drift. We're looking at layered soundscapes, cinematic in style with a touch of Robyn about them. 'Denial' has a touch of Fever Ray about it too except it's (sorry) far less interesting. 'Weigh True Words' is surely destined to be a single, it's catchy as hell - but what the hell do I know about music hey? This record sure is lovely though and actually I'd like to play it super loudly in a disused church or on my headphones whilst walking through the Sonoran Desert...alone. This is a real album, a collection of songs painstakingly engineered to be listened to, one after the other, like a loop of slick beats. Geez, I love the beats. 7/10 Rosie Arnold