Album Review: Warpaint- Self-Titled

In the world of contemporary popular music, four years can seem like a fucking eternity.

Between 2010 and today, think of all that’s occurred in pop music. Think of what’s come and gone already—hit singles by artists who will probably never have another hit single ever again. Bands that form. Bands that break up. People who make “comebacks.” Eagerly awaited albums that fall short of sales expectations.

Some artists, like Radiohead, for example—they took four years between their last three studio albums. But they’re a marquee name, and can get away with something like that. For a relatively new band, releasing their first full-length, to wait four years for the follow up? 

Coming nearly four years after their debut, The Fool, and a decade into their inception, the hazy, psychedelic girl-group, Warpaint, have returned with a self-titled sophomore album.

I was actually supposed to see Warpaint in March of 2011, when they were touring in support of The Fool. I was actually more excited to see the opening act, the husband/wife duo Family Band—going on what I believed was their first national tour. There was a disastrous snowstorm the night before the concert, and I guess the roads in Minneapolis were a total shit show the next day—but the bands themselves were snowed in wherever they had played they prior and couldn’t make it here. The show was canceled (and never rescheduled), a refund was issued, and since the tail end of 2011, the girls in Warpaint have remained relatively quiet.

Much has been made, and will probably continue to be made, about the very organic, “exquisite corpse” style in which the band writes their material—Warpaint shows focus and growth when compared to the somewhat meandering song structure from The Fool. Warpaint aren’t writing three-minute pop songs, or anything like that, but this album finds the band branching out a little sonically speaking—keyboards and drum machines have been incorporated into the band’s dreamy aesthetic.

It was incredibly easy to be sucked in by the band’s hypnotic vibes on The Fool—specifically on the band’s breakthrough single, “Undertow.” As a whole, Warpaint is less hypnotic—it can be incredibly harsh at times, actually. The shrill vocal dissonance on “Disco//Very” is rather off-putting, but you want to keep listening since it’s backed by incredibly dope…and dare I even say “funky” beat, very reminiscent of “Sir Duke.”

Produced by the band themselves along with veteran Flood (most commonly associated with U2, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, and PJ Harvey), I would stop short of saying Warpaint is a sparse or minimalistic album, although, this was the band’s intention. It’s interesting, actually, from a production standpoint—because the songs walk this line between being rather dense and multi-layered, but they also feel more restrained and reserved when compared to the rather rich sound the band worked with on The Fool.

Consider the album’s first single, “Love is to Die.” During the verses, there’s some neat guitar atmospherics happening, but by the time the refrain rolls around, that all goes away, and we’re left only with the rhythm section. To me, it seems like that should be a much “bigger” moment, if you will—like something should have built up to that point, but instead, Warpaint choose to remove rather than include.

There are moments on Warpaint where the album’s pacing becomes rather slow—not in a bad way, but the band sequences some of the more unhurried songs together—“Biggy” and “Teese,” both reveal themselves at their own leisurely place, proving to be two of the more “mysterious” sounding sounds on the record.

Within the Wikipedia page for Warpaint, which I am certain is just full of factual information; there are quotes from members of the band, saying that they experimented with more percussion this time around, as well as attempting to incorporate a hip-hop and R&B influence.

I guess I don’t hear much of anything that reminds me of hip-hop or R&B on Warpaint, although on “Go In,” there are some very strong jazz vibes—not only from the clean-sounding, strummed guitar, and brushed percussion, but from the overall structure to the song itself.

Within the final quarter of the album, the band reaches the same catchy height that they did in 2010 with “Undertow,” with the track “Feeling Alight.” It strikes the right balance between shadowy, seductive, vulnerable, atmospheric, unnerving, and hypnotic—powered again by the driving rhythm section of Jenny Lee Lindberg on bass and Stella Mozgawa on drums, with the cascading guitar waves provided by Theresa Wayman, and the haunted vocals of lead singer Emily Kokal.

Exponentially more cohesive and focused when compared to where they were six years ago with their debut EP, this is a band that takes its time to ensure that they do things right. It’s a record that reveals itself in a very calculated, deliberately slow way over the course of its running time. Warpaint have always had a "warmth" within their sound, and this self-titled record is no exception. It is inviting and unwelcoming at the same time; hazy and dreamy while still keeping a clear vision. Warpaint, in the end, is a fascinating sound of a band growing up and maturing into their evolving sound.

Warpaint is available on CD or a double LP onTuesday, via Rough Trade.