It’s difficult, because on some level I feel like these things are meant to be a review, of sorts, but I am often struck by how unqualified I am to be that reviewier - who am I to talk about how good an electronic album is? I don’t have the language, the context, the points of comparison? I can say I like or don’t like it, and that means nothing in a vacuum, but it also means nothing if I can’t say why.
This is especially true of something like Good Lies, where it is less, say, melodic? Or is it. Feelings Plain immediately hooks me, the uncredited vocalist intoning “I needed somebody to believe in”, building in layers, with some beautifully rug-pulling chord changes.
I find it interesting that there’s this weird intersection of “situations where this kind of electronic music is very much the vibe”, which covers both clubs but also writing code. It’s maybe not quite what Overmono is, but the platonic ideal (in my eyes) is the score to The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the archetypal “plug in and code” soundtrack. Other genres which are surprisingly popular amongst the people you wouldn’t expect it of is death metal. Even not writing much code myself these days, 17 years of doing so whilst plugged in to some kind of music does mean that I associate it with “getting on with things” more than the specifics. So here I am.
So what is it, when the album is just on in the background, that makes one track stand out over another? Calon stood out as I listened on the bus into work, enough to remind me to check the name on my phone before it moved on, but it’s not like a) I disliked the other songs or b) that this is particularly distinct from the rest of the album.
The rest of it - it’s good! I do like it! I can see it entering rotation; I can see it being on the “I’m having a semi-chill house party and as music that is amenable but not bland, this will work perfectly” list. That’s no bad thing.