Airick Woodhead’s 2013 Doldrums debut album, Lesser Evil, had the intuitive but rough feel of an indie rocker diving into electronic music for the first time. A lot of that naive quality has been left behind on Air Conditioned Nightmare, for better or for worse. The newfound polish works, and it doesn’t hurt that he seems to be repressing his pop impulses less, but it also feels like he’s muting some of that eager early adventurousness.
While the electronic music references are easy to spot, much of the album has more in common with Britpop than with dance music. Woodhead’s nasal whine sometimes evokes Thom Yorke, if the Radiohead vocalist were trying to project more of a bratty punk attitude, which can be irritating in large doses. Air Conditioned Nightmare has fewer traces of the experimental Montreal loft party scene Doldrums originally emerged from, but it’s not quite accessible enough for big festival stages either.
Top track: Industry City
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