The Turkish Darkwave duo follow up 2019’s Disko Anksiyete with an album that oozes somber melodies to a fault.
In what’s left of America, those of us who live in the Northeast and likely extending past the Rust Belt and into the Midwest just survived the coldest winter in recent memory. The kind of cold that alters your DNA and gets you thinking bleak. Like a lot of people, I have records that I listen to during certain parts of the year. For example, in New Jersey I’m pretty sure it’s the law that you have to listen to The Misfits in October. If you don’t, Jerry Only stands outside your house or place of employment with a boombox over his head like John Cusack in Say Anything. Springtime for me usually means diving back into stuff on Dischord Records. Summers are usually filled with the sounds of Dead Kennedys and Lifetime and Warzone. The list goes on. These records just beg to be listened to when the exterior conditions provide the perfect backdrop. The latest She Past Away record is a curious case. It fit well with this winter, one where people holed up hopelessly like the Donner Party praying for spring… so that is to say Mizantrop would pair well with humans consuming other humans to survive, but in my opinion it lacks the visceral qualities that She Past Away have employed on previous releases.
I’ve been a fan of the band since Disko Anksiyete which isn’t a long time ago, but nevertheless, it was my gateway. It’s a strong record. Strong enough to file their previous releases away as building block albums all leading to that release. Mizantrop doesn’t take another step forward, in fact it kinda wades in dark murky water and never really emerges beyond its sinister veneer.
No one can ever say that the production on this record isn’t good. It’s very good. Everything sounds very full. The aesthetic choices highlight the colder tones that I think were a conscience effort to bring upfront. The album is very atmospheric. It sounds like it was recorded in the ruins of a forgotten orthodox cathedral. The biggest issue that I have with this record is tempo fatigue. All the songs seem to be nearly the same. With the exception of two tracks seeming dropped without any real intentionality, the remaining songs are rhythmically very, very close and there’s not much to break it up. It wasn’t really textured well and I’m not sure the reason for that but with only seven songs, a couple of tracks could’ve been thrown in between here and there to break up the mid tempo drudge.
It also feels like a step back because there is a high level of predictability with some of these songs. I could sort of already see how they’re mapped out and what parts were gonna come next. That doesn’t really make it fun, although in fairness, She Past Away may not want anyone to have fun with this record. That’s a fair objective, however I think it’s equally fair to point out that “not fun” equals uninteresting, and uninteresting goes hand in glove with forgettable.
Maybe I’m not the most qualified to cast judgment on this record. In fact, things are getting so dark and glum in America, that we may look back in 5 years and view Mizantrop as a record that makes the most sense in the authoritarian dystopia we are running towards… but as it sits now, it’s just not the record I was hoping for.
