You Can Be My Wave

I was very much looking forward to this record from the Daughters frontman because they are such a unique band. Across their career, they have crafted some of the most chaotic funhouses of horror I've ever experienced. Just like how you can't expect Daughters to make the same record twice, I knew that Alexis Marshall's first solo record would be something different as well. Now that I've spun it a few times, I am sad to report that I can sum it up in one unfortunate word, exhausting. In many ways, this record reminds me of a great exploration into the avant-garde, Scott Walker's Bish Bosch, except it is severely lacking when it comes to the creativity in sound design. If I hear a sound and know exactly how it was made, then I don't think the artist in question is trying hard enough. By the time No Truth In the Body comes around where I just hear coins falling and spinning on the ground, I've grown so incredibly bored. There has to be a trade off. If you are trying to make something that is more noisy, experimental, and almost devoid of harmony, then as the artist, you must develop interesting sounds to command my attention. This is the album's biggest flaw.

As you can probably guess, my favourite moments are the tracks that have a little more melodic content to chew over, pretty much just Night Moving and Youth As Religion. Night Moving drones along with a wall of distortion and some rich piano chords as Marshall softly speaks over it. Marshall delivers a similar performance on Youth As Religion except he is accompanied by a gently finger-picked electric guitar, some deep bass piano hits that sound like they were struck with a much larger hammer, and some buzzing that sounds like fret noise. The opening track also has some pretty prominent melodic content, but at 7 minutes in length, it becomes difficult listening to Marshall essentially cry out desperately.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Religion As Leader, an ideological continuation and expansion of Youth As Religion. It is not the most interesting track in terms of the sounds but I do like the eerie space between percussion hits and I'm immediately hooked by Marshall's signature snarl in the opening lines. Towards the end of the track, Marshall is joined by Kristin Haytar, also known as Lingua Ignota, who delivers some crazy screams. It is perhaps the only time where the extremity and the abrasion actually makes me feel something.

My feelings on the rest of the record range from general apathy to patience testing so I might leave it there. The silver lining is that this record is not a total loss, as there were three tracks I enjoyed or found rather interesting. I don't want to suggest that Marshall only has value as a member of Daughters. Instead, I think there is a lot of potential for him as a solo artist and that he can one day develop an interesting 'musical' (whatever that means) identity that stands on its own without being overshadowed by Daughters. This was his first record and I'm certainly hoping it isn't his last.