By Ofelia Fuentes |A&E Assistant Editor|
American alternative indie rock band Warpaint followed up their debut album three years later with another successful self-titled album.
Warpaint is a Los Angeles formed band, created in 2004 and composed of lead vocalist Emily Kokal, guitarist Theresa Wayman, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg, and drummer Stella Mozgawa.
As the band began to make preparations for their new album, they decided they would write the songs in a spontaneous way.
In an interview with New Musical Express, bassist Lindberg explained that the songs were simply written by “just jamming and free flowing on stage.”
The band developed the tracks on this album in a completely experimental manner.
Warpaint’s main goal in writing this album was to create a minimalistic sound with acoustic guitars and percussion instruments.
Warpaint had the help of Nigel Timothy Godrich an English record producer and engineer, better known for his work with Radiohead along side with Mark “Flood” Ellis, renowned for his work with Thirty Seconds to Mars, The Smashing Pumpkins and The Killers.
Warpaint was first released online via National Public Radio (NPR). The album was then released in different countries on different dates. The self-titled album was dropped in the U.S. on Jan. 21.
Prior to the albums drop date, the band released two singles: “Love is to Die” and “Biggy.”
The songs in the album are fairly long, each longer than 3 minutes with a consistent theme.
In a little over a week the album reached an average of four stars, with the most popular songs on the album being “Love is to Die,” “Keep it Healthy,” and “Hi.”
There is a resonating sound that just makes Warpaint a great album for a night hanging out with friends
The album has great ghostly vocals giving the bass and drums the main focus throughout each song.
Listening to a few songs from the Warpaint’s debut album there seems to be a close resemblance to Warpaint.
After listening to “Love is to Die,” CSUSB student Lorna Gonzalez said, “I really like this song, its really mellow, something I can even fall asleep to.”
The songs all seem to be a mix of beats that flow nicely with eerie vocals that are pleasant for the ears.
Releasing the album in a stretched out time is very brave, and extremely uncompromising with the industry standard of 12-24 months. Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry’s review of the album described Warpaint to be, “brave and uncompromising.”
Overall the album has great vocals, hypnotic melodies, great atmosphere and can definitely easily fill up a quiet room without over-powering.
Although the songs are good, I feel as if Warpaint is more of background music for the most part. The songs have a beginning and an end, but no in between it just stays at the same tempo with no climax.
Leave a Reply