Orca

With his early singles and 2019 debut album Where Polly People Go to Read, Brooklyn bedroom pop artist Gus Dapperton wrapped warm hooks and synth-dotted arrangements in a carefully stylized persona. Songs about detached relationships, longing, and quirky, soft-spoken characters were meticulously built around Dappertons self-produced dream pop instrumentals and breathy vocals. Second album Orca arrived a little over a year after the debut and finds Dappertons blue-tinted and ever-chill indie songwriting lighter on the synths and a little rougher around the edges. This might be due in part to Dapperton handing over mixing duties to Spike Spent, relinquishing a little control in his previously self-contained work flow. First Aid starts out with acoustic guitar strums and flowing melodies that echo Dappertons earlier work but opens up into a propulsive bassline and heavier drumming, moving into a place less dreamy and more agonized. Post Humorous is similar, replacing the synth accents of Where Polly People Go to Read with bright overlapping guitar leads and walls of layered vocal harmonies. The punky outbursts of Grim reach new levels of aggression for an artist known for his normally woozy and subdued demeanor. Orca was written when Dapperton was touring, and most of the songs hint at the monotony and isolation that come from weeks or months spent away from the stability of home. This shows up in both the relatively angstier energy of the previously mentioned songs and the floaty, dream-like sadness of Antidote. ~ Fred Thomas