PVRIS - Use Me
Watching Lynn Gunn towards the end of the PVRIS’ last cross-continental tour saw the striking frontwoman struggling with not only her voice, but with her physical and mental health. The past few years have given her a lot to work through, which she thrashes out with gloom and glamour in equal parts on stunning third album ‘Use Me’.
Much of the press coverage surrounding the release of the record centres on the emancipation of Gunn as the band’s lead creative. On artwork and promotional material she features front, centre and - for the first time - alone.
‘I’m finally allowing myself to take credit. I’ve got the full support and encouragement of my bandmates. PVRIS are a unit and very much a team, but the heart and soul of the vision and music always has sourced from me. I’m just saying it now.’
Her parting words before offering up the record to an eager audience were hopes that they could ‘connect, dance, cry and sing along’ to it, and they will not be disappointed. Subjected to two different delays, ‘Use Me’ carries the energy and emotion of a body of work bursting at the seams to be heard.
Those thirsty for new music were fortunate enough to be blessed with the Hallucinations EP almost a year ago. Purists may have been fearful that the shine would be dimmed from the final product but this is by no means the case. Each inclusion of the EP’s songs clearly have their place and cannot work without eachother. Besides, it would have been a tragedy to exclude the actual song Hallucinations on the basis it is probably the best song they have ever done (close contenders are Same Soul and Mirrors, if you were wondering.)
The first note of album opener ‘Gimme A Minute’ synthetically pulses like the pressing of an on-switch, Gunn’s own furious awakening. She has a lot to get off her chest, and does so thick and fast to a backdrop of JT Daly’s beautifully crafted production. His time leading sorely-underrated Nashville alternative band Paper Route ensures he is no stranger to making songs as pop-driven as they are poignant.
Much of the album looks at the decline and subsequent healing that comes with an intense relationship. Lynn has looked inwards, pulled herself apart, and had a three-year long think about how to put the pieces back together to make a healthier fit. ‘Use Me’ indulges in all of the facets that occupy a broken heart and body - what it means to acknowledge your pain and how to feel better about it.
These feelings have been immortalised this in a body of work with zero fillers. You might think acoustic number ‘Loveless’ is the culprit as we mistakenly did, but you would be wrong. ‘Were you always heartless? Did you learn it from your father?’, Gunn wrly asks in the album’s best one-two punch.
In a sea of first-time collaborations that ultimately feel inauthentic and under-duress, including the GOOD MUSIC protegé 070 Shake was a masterstroke. A track surely bound for the next season of Euphoria, its industrial beat chugs along to the tune of Gunn unfolding in the depths of co-dependency. Concluding with swelling strings, it is aural decadence.
It’s too saccharine to say that ‘Use Me’ is the band’s most personal work to date - PVRIS have always drawn from the well of Gunn’s experiences and done so with flair, ease. However, fans can come away from a spring in their step at this record being their best.
9/10
