“When was the first time you heard the phrase ‘saccharine’?” singer Rachel Brown asks, sounding a bit like a drained Beat poet, on Water From Your Eyes’ jazzy music, “Bear in mind Not My Identify.” Like virtually each lyric on the avant-pop duo’s Everybody’s Crushed – no less than those that don’t learn like free-associated stream of consciousness poetry – Brown’s query could possibly be taken sarcastically.
Since forming in 2016, Water From Your Eyes have paired noisy but winsome music with winky, tongue-in-cheek lyrics that Brown delivers in a method that may sound without delay sweetly harmless and barely devious. That imprecise insincerity is an acquired style however when you’re immersed in it, it could possibly really feel virtually charming. It’s the key ingredient that made their covers album, 2021’s Someone Else’s Songs, so gratifying (Brown enunciates each lyric of Eminem’s “Lose Your self” dorkily-on-purpose and sings No Doubt’s “Hella Good” sorta off pitch), and it’s additionally what made Construction, their 2021 album of originals, surprisingly endearing.
As with their earlier information, Everybody’s Crushed opens up like its personal universe. Keyboards stutter aimlessly, then they sigh, after which Brown exhales drolly proper together with them: “I simply wished to wish for the rain.” Appears innocent sufficient, however then Brown’s counterpart, Nate Amos, who handles all of the devices, begins trilling his keys initially of “Barley” and Brown, who makes use of they/them pronouns, begins singing about counting mountains. It’s disorienting (actually … they sing, “West wind left to bounce” with extra trills) they usually even quote Sting’s “Fields of Gold” earlier than the entire thing approximates the audial expertise of melting. Amos’ synths simply appear to lose kind.
This chaos often works within the duo’s favor. “Out There” begins with funky bass and ascending synths for a superb minute earlier than Amos begins squalling his guitar and Brown speak-sings a string of single syllable nouns and verbs: “observe, give, dive, slack, drag, draft, mud, scram.” Does it imply something? It’s exhausting to inform with the guitar leaping between your ears, however the impact is enjoyable. “Everybody’s Crushed” finds Brown various the phrase “I’m with everybody I like, and all the things hurts” (additionally “I’m in love with everybody and all the things hurts” and “I’m with everybody I harm and all the things’s love”) over extra noisy guitar loops that don’t fairly match up with the rhythm. And “True Life” pulls off the stereo clanging once more however pairs it with a break bit, over which Brown raps type of like Beck within the early Nineties.
At its worst, the music on Everybody’s Crushed appears like etudes – research in experimentalism, finger workouts for tyros within the avant-garde. However when Water From Your Eyes discover transcendence – particularly on the document’s last two tracks, “14” and the additional winky “Purchase My Product” – it may be fairly gorgeous.
“14” pairs heat orchestral strings with suggestions as Brown sings, “When did it begin to loop?” A number of the time, they couldn’t discover the appropriate pitch with a map, a compass, and Lewis and Clark narrating the Waze instructions, however there’s one thing nonetheless nice about the best way they sing. You need them to search out their method and get there. And on “Purchase My Product,” which incorporates a revolving, almost Motorik beat, Brown and Amos work collectively to create a multilayered meditation on which Brown snarks on the nature of artwork and consumerism. “Keep in mind that there are solely issues that occur,” they sing. “Purchase my product. Now.” Nothing saccharine about that.
