Apple

A.G. Cook

For awhile now, PC Music founder A. G. Cook has been on the cutting edge of pop and electronic music; serving as architect behind some of my favourite tunes to come out in the last five years. Only until recently has Cook decided to release his first real album. Apple, which was released last year, isn't really a cohesive sounding record and more so a portfolio of the different lanes Cook can operate in. The results are mixed as this album features some of my favourite work he's done as well as some of his worst.

The album gets off to a rough start with the first four tracks. Oh Yeah is a 90s, acoustic guitar infused pop song with some pretty awful lyrics. There's some pretty good auto-tuned vocal runs at the end, but it's not really enough to save the track. The following track, Xxoplex, is a complete change of pace with its arena sized EDM presentation. Some of the synth textures are pretty typical and the song transitions aimlessly from section to section with no real direction. Beautiful Superstar is yawn inducing with the breathy vocal delivery, glassy electric guitar, and soft droning synths. The real tragedy in the first leg of this record is a cover of Oneohtrix Point Never's Animals. Not many creative liberties were taken with the track as many of the synth timbres are almost identical to the source. Cook tries to apply auto-tune in some freaky ways in order to match the glitchy robot in the original, but the results are sour and unflattering.

The next leg of the record is quite strong, starting with my favourite track, Airhaed. I absolutely love the plucky synth, sparse beat, and the pitched up vocals. It is so much fun and so colourful. I would have been happy with just this, but the song elevates even further with these crazy synth arpeggios. This track goes into Haunted which is a rather beautiful piece that alternates between these acoustic guitar and vocal synth passages. Towards the end of the record, Cook squeezes in one more electronic banger titled Stargon. I really like the synth timbre and the chord progression on this track. I also really love the way the chords bend into each other creating a brief moment of dissonance before being resolved into the next chord.

As it turns out, A. G. Cook's first album didn't really pan out the way I wanted it to. While the back half is pretty solid, the first few songs that open the record almost neutralizes all the records bright moments. At the very least, I can add two more amazing electronic pieces into my rotation for whenever I need a pick-me-up. I still consider Cook to be an absolute visionary when it comes to modern pop music production and look at this as just a minor misstep.