Released September 4, 2015
6 / 10
Favorites
White Blood, Heart Hope
Least favorites
Body Gold, Dazzle, Plans
Although Oh Wonder explore a variety of sounds on their debut album, it somehow lands as if each track was made using the same formula, varying in proportions of ingredients in the mix and borrowing limbs from one another. The duo set out to write and put out one song each month for a year, starting in September 2014. One year later, mission accomplished, as they put out their debut self-titled album with those tracks as well as two unreleased songs. The album was entirely written, produced and mixed by them and expresses a form of idealism in life and romance that would come to become their signature. "Oh Wonder" was really never conceived as a monolithic record and it shows: the album is full of movable parts that don't quite add up organically. In this instance the whole is not much greater than the sum of its parts although a couple of tracks make the listen worthwhile. Part of Oh Wonder's shtick is inspiring their listeners to find strength within themselves and their significant other through lyrical content. It all starts with album opener, Livewire, about finding comfort in someone else in the harder times. Percussions set the mood of this piano-led track within which synth motifs insert themselves quite nicely. The verses stick out as sung from a dispirited place while the choruses rise as the singers reach out to one another. Overall, it's a nice introduction to the soprano and alto mesh that is featured throughout the duo's entire discography with a bit of jazz smooth. Landslide is another example of Oh Wonder's attitude towards pain and depression. They always find a way to spin the bad into hope - albeit sometimes too predictably. Josephine and Anthony twitted "It's for all the broken hearts, lost souls and missed opportunities" as they released the song, punctuated by sweet lyrics ("So when you're caught in a landslide / I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you") and optimism ("I know you'll get over it"). For once, Anthony's warm voice leads Josephine, pacing slightly ahead - while still in support mode. The instrumentation feels denser than on most of the album and we even get to hear a bit of grit in Josephine's voice by the end. An issue with Oh Wonder's brand of dream pop is that it can come off repetitive and hard to relate to. Their vision is slanted by their idealism, to an extent where the listener is left out of the conversation altogether. Technicolour Beat opens intriguingly but the listener is quickly released from the track's clutches as the duo loses themselves in very abstract and mushy lyrics - basically about being in a serene state of contentment with your love. The arrangements are a bit too sparse, each layer of the composition sounds a bit disconnected from the others. The sound would have been relaxing had it not been for the electronic relentless "oh" in the background. I find that, on this track especially, the harmonies sound sluggish, as if weighed down by their mass and constrained to wait for parts to move to eventually catch up to the ambient melodies. With all that said, the song is not a bad one per se, and actually has one of the most exciting ending on the album - achieving one of the most clever crescendo on "Oh Wonder". The songs on "Oh Wonder" started off as a side project whose direction the duo didn't really think about early on. So we can forgive the lack of cohesion considering the album as a collection of songs to introduce the duo to the world more than a story from beginning to end. But lack of cohesion is not only the only unfortunate side effect of their enterprise. Choosing to keep all the tracks they put out in the album led to a very uneven product. Some tracks feel more crafty and pieced together than they should to land well. Body Gold doesn't feel quite finished for one. It flirts with dissonance, tries out a voice effect on Anthony and diverse percussion effects, as if created during an Ableton workshop. Lose It sounds a bit clumsy: for a song about the lack of restraint and letting go, it sounds pretty contrived. I appreciate they were willing to go in a jazz-pop direction but the result is not convincing. For a brief tour of some of the album's lowest lows: Without You's intro feels very artsy collage and paddles in place for nearly four minutes; Dazzle sounds like an experiment gone wrong, with senseless bicycle bells and ill-fitting vocal effects ; Midnight Moon sounds destined for an ad placement with very strange components stuck together and asked to play nice with each other (Oh Wonder did admit that the track was "the amalgamation of a few different songs - a musical patchwork of sorts"; why they felt they needed to share it with the world is their business I guess). The last song they released before the album itself, Heart Hope, ends up being one of "Oh Wonder"'s brightest notes - and should've been the album's closer, Plans be damned. It's audibly influenced by artists like Bon Iver while not sounding out of place or incoherent with the duo's style. They sing about liberating yourself from outside interference, forgetting about "the endless cities multiplying out oceansize" to concentrate on yourself. The piano glistens and the overall composition is no-fuss-no-muss. Thematically, it carries the right dose of lyricism and hope, with emotionally-charged vocals. Maybe that's where the secret lies: no bicycle bells, no musical collage and no disconnect between the arrangements and the message can be guiding principles moving forward.
Favorite lyrics
"I know we've gotta outgrow and feel a little heart hope 'Cause there is something more than everything"
Heart Hope
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