Any Shape You Take＜Colored Vinyl/限定盤＞

The second full-length from singer/songwriter Indigo De Souza, Any Shape You Take is the North Carolinians first for Saddle Creek, which reissued her debut album a couple months prior in anticipation of its arrival. Doubling down on the debuts raw and candid ethos, the follow-up delves into dysfunctional relationships, death, and despair with a more polished yet still hooky, jagged indie rock co-produced by De Souza and Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). Before deep-diving into songs with titles like Darker Than Death, Kill Me, and centerpiece Real Pain, it opens with the poppy, Auto-Tuned 17, a synth-based song about ill-fated teenage love with its own dark lyrical bent. Live drums and guitar are introduced on second track Darker Than Death, a midtempo, punchy indie rocker that has our protagonist wondering what she did wrong. When the set list eventually arrives at the lilting Real Pain, it transforms a melancholy dream rock into a cacophony of screams, yells, and anything else that De Souza requested from fans online in the form of anonymous voice memos. That section is underscored by a pounding, in-unison bass and drum, swirling keys, and more, until it abruptly converts into a sleek jammer that stresses, I wanna know its not my fault. She goes on to traverse moody post-punk (Bad Dream), playful funk-pop (Hold U), and a default churning indie rock (including infectious highlight Way Out) before closing the proceedings with Kill Me. Violent and sexually explicit, it revives a stream-of-consciousness laptop-video demo from 2018 that De Souza later forgot ever writing. The song leaves Any Shape You Take on the too-pertinent repeated line: Tell them that I wasnt having much fun. ~ Marcy Donelson

ワクサハッチーをはじめ、〈オルタナ世代〉と謳われるシンガー・ソングライターの一人として称えられるべき存在だ。彼女が胸の内に抱えるものは"Darker Than Death"や"Kill Me"といった曲名から推して知るべし。"Real Pain"では地獄を思わせる展開に戦慄。それもフュージョンやファンクも入り混じる曲調の幅広さの表れと考えるべきなのか!? そんな奔放さも全米デビュー盤となるこのセカンド・アルバムの聴きどころだ。
bounce (C)山口智男