Boneless Odesza
Producer Jai Wolf is the newest breed of commercial EDM to slide into the pop charts. Blending indie rock with EDM cliché, Jai Wolf is a festival filler. Inoffensive and bland enough to appeal to your grandma, yet danceable, atmospheric and pretty chill. Even so, Jai Wolf is nothing you haven’t heard in your average car commercial, and his newest album The Cure to Loneliness makes no real attempt to stand out in a bloated genre.
“Lose My Mind” kicks off with an upbeat indie rock chord progression under a garage band drum loop. The reverb soaked vocal melodies are pleasant yet predictable. Much of the track is formulaic and uninspired. “Telepathy” features cutesy vocal chop melodies, which are so overused and cliché at this point that it’s a sin to even hear them in 2019. “This Song Reminds Me of You” is an upbeat whitewashed house track, with more garage band drums, generic synth leads with the same melodies and chord progressions you have heard a million times. While the production is competent and the songs are put together with the expected EDM formulas, releasing a track so devoid of originality and biting every upbeat house track of the last decade feels unforgivable.
“Drowning” features chilling atmospheric buildup to a well put together EDM drop. The song is aided by vocals from Robokid, which are dense and packed with emotional depth. The production is sterile yet makes for easy listening. “Your Way” is also a highlight, minimal vocals from Day Wave are pleasing and the production is dynamic and punchy. Bright Guitars and dense arpeggiating synths fill the track out and make for a fine dance tune.
Nothing on The Cure to Loneliness” is essential, original or really worth the half a cent of energy it takes to stream it. A couple songs marry pleasing vocal features and a good mix of indietronica and synthpop. Yet there are many other artists in this genre doing a better job of pushing these aging sounds forward. Jai Wolf unfortunately has more work to do crafting a unique sound that doesn’t lean so heavily on last decades hot trends.
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