An English artist fleeing London for LA, eschewing the late winter drizzle for golden sands and rising with a sun-dappled document isn’t any novel idea. But for a now 24-year-old Declan McKenna, this stateside interval coincides with an period of private development and maturity. On his third album ‘What Occurred To The Seashore?’, he debuts a newfound penchant for wanting inward for lyrical inspiration, reasonably than on the rusting, imperfect world round him. Whereas his 2020 album ‘Zeros’ and extensively acclaimed 2017 debut ‘What Do You Assume About The Automobile?’ each dealt largely with politics, corruption and world warming, ‘What Occurred to the Seashore?’ sheds a few of that accountability, permitting anxiousness to break down and fade as luridly because the West Coast waves that permeate the songs.
Nonetheless, choosing a rose-tinted strategy to songwriting wasn’t a choice that was taken evenly, with McKenna citing remedy as key in serving to him place pleasure as a lyrical muse rather than the heavier subjects that punctuated his earlier albums. Working with Gianluca Buccellati, the producer behind Arlo Parks’ radiant debut ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ and elements of Lana Del Rey’s beachy ‘Lust for Life’, this brighter outlook takes the type of a spacier, lighter sonic environment the place oddness is allowed to shine.
A few of the sharper lyrical wit that outlined his earlier releases is deserted – however McKenna is certain to state that it’s intentional. On theatrical, ’60s pop-inspired lead single ‘Sympathy’ he ruminates the non-public affirmation “You don’t must be intelligent”. Freedom, then, is a theme that runs all through, a precedent instantly set with album opener ‘Wobble’, as he establishes his new California-inflicted mindset: “I used to cry at house all evening and now I’m out within the sunshine.”
But regardless of these West Coast notions, with tracks like ‘Mulholland’s Dinner and Wine’ dripping in woozy observations of LA life, it’s nonetheless an album closely imbued with British id. ‘I Write The Information’ pokes enjoyable at hovering London rents and “Kensington dudes”, whereas ‘Nothing Works’ takes goal at creativity-stifling music execs. It’s one of many album’s extra pointed moments, tackling the absurdity of briefly being heralded because the music trade’s “fats cat child” as a young person. Right here, he battles with the frustrations of trying to develop as an artist amid a system that might reasonably him endlessly try to recreate the causes of his early success.
On ‘What Occurred To The Seashore?’, perfectionism is launched to create space to experience creativity, leading to a very joyful effort. Maybe this newfound lightness will detach him from an early viewers of disillusioned British teenagers positive to reject the notion that larger doses of Vitamin D can actually be the antidote to the ache and strife of recent residing. But it’s not one thing McKenna appears involved by. Right here he’s now not attempting to talk for a era – only for himself.
Particulars
- Launch date: February 9, 2024
- Document label: Columbia
