London Grammar’s new album Californian Soil is a progressive shift for the Nottingham-formed trio, displaying exciting moments of new-found confidence and conviction in their sound.
We are encouraged into the album with singer Hannah Reid’s enchanting vocals over a progressive orchestral instrumental, which had me thinking we had momentarily jumped into the Doctor Who soundtrack.
From the title track, we realise the stand-out lyrical premise of the album being Reid’s experience of sexism in the music industry. As she sings ‘But I never had a name, And I never felt the same’, the hard-hitting electronic beats and repetitive ticking throughout the track subsides, briefly emphasising how the misogyny she faced stripped her bare, making her feel inferior to her fellow bandmates. This was contrasted with beautiful yet restrained string builds, continuing the provocative atmosphere for the album.
The third track ‘Missing’ is where we first see a compromise of their distinctive melodic spacious progressions from their previous album Truth Is a Beautiful Thing, with more catchy and heavy electro beats. The increase in tempo from Reid’s vocals over a very straightforward and slow melody, however, misses the spot entirely, dismissing the known potential of this band to create complicated and varied soundscapes.
‘Lord is a Feeling’ and ‘How Does It Feel’ are an attempt at drum and bass infused pop, but tend to hide behind Reid’s superior vocals, and when stripped away leaves me slightly underwhelmed. When clubs open, people will dance to remixes of the disimpassioned vocal hooks and electronic sound effects, concerning me they are trying too hard to please.
There are places in the album, however, where they executed a distinguishing take on the new electro-pop direction. The single ‘Lose Your Head’, produced by the acclaimed George Fitzgerald, has all the brilliances of past London Grammar, but with an upbeat stance. The guitar picks and rhythmic percussion build and drop over understated chord progressions, until an electrifying accumulation at the end playing out a beautiful and coherent arrangement of percussion and synth instrumentation. ‘Baby It’s You’ is another track that plays to London Grammar’s strengths with the layered drum grooves and holding piano matching Reid’s compelling vocals that are given space to create a dream-like soundscape through an uplifting dance concept.
The bookend of the record, ‘America’ is the highlight of the album for me. Lyrically the strongest, we see Reid at her most vulnerable candidly depicting the ‘American Dream’ as a metaphor for what the band once thought they wanted from the music industry, but soon realising the superficial life wasn’t for them. As she freely sings ‘and yes my looks they’ll go away’ at the end of the track, she is scrutinising the image-based music industry as she learns to acknowledge herself as more than eye candy. Unlike in some other tracks the lyrical honesty and stripped back guitar accompaniment gives the track great conviction, portraying plenty of emotion, something Reid has struggled with in the past.
Despite not all risks paying off, Californian Soil seems like a push in the right direction from the arguably samey sound of their previous two albums. It was empowering to see Reid take centre stage on the album, while also diverging from cliché love and heartbreak lyricism to exposing provoking and existing issues. It shows a band with continuing potential but a lack of execution this time round.
Rating: 3/5
