Mixed a little differently, Lower Dens’ Escape From Evil would be a document of a disciplined, tightly wound band that -occasionally unravels to great effect: the queasy layered synth solo in Your Heart Still Beating, the anxiously clattering finale to I Am The Earth. But instead, dense layers of instrumentation have been laboured over to foreground Jana Hunter’s singing as the album’s sonic centrepiece. On first listen, it seems like a significant change-up for a band whose first two records drew a lot of power from understatement. The moody minimalism is still present, but under the rich vocal treatment the band sounds more subordinate and self-effacing, at times to a fault.
While there’s unprecedented emphasis on Hunter’s melancholy croon, it doesn’t quite feel like a pop record. With disarming lyrics about loneliness and resilience (the album’s titled is borrowed from Ernest Becker’s landmark study on death anxiety), the production choices seem to be less about placing listeners in comfortable territory and more about forcing them to confront the weighty thematic underpinning.
The record’s got sublimation if you want it. And if you don’t, it’s got entertainment, bright and shining.
Top track: Societe Anonyme