Vinyl LP
For a new (and SEO-proof) duo, Clothing lack neither expertise nor confidence. Then again, they’re vets at this. Composed of Dawn of Midi’s Aakaash Israni and Ben Sterling of Cookies and Mobius Band, Clothing and their debut, From Memory, were ostensibly in the works for the better part of the last decade. That such a significant amount of time was spent creating this album doesn’t manifest in a lengthy tracklist or a surplus of ideas. From Memory is, above all, a record that feels put together in every sense of the phrase. The production is layered with particular attention to detail, and none of the record’s eight songs feel squeezed into the record’s trim, 29-minute runtime.
The flow of the record is kinetic but never unstable, something akin to musical feng shui. Even at its emotional climaxes—the chorus of “Modern Interiors,†for instance, when featured vocalist Anna Wise shadowboxes with the synth line—it feels succinctly arranged and self-contained; each idea is aired, inspected, and concluded. On “Kingdom,†the group’s debut single turned album opener, Dirty Projectors’s Amber Coffman reflects on the convergence of contemporary crises (including “the end of natureâ€) with an eye on how history’s force and scope dominates individual human lives in any century: “The gods are laughing/ You know they’ve been here before.†They refuse to leave it there. On “Still Point,†L’Rain is on hand to turn that anxiety into gentle contemplation on the delicate nature of love.
Even with Coffman declaring that “if history repeats/ I can’t bear to see†on “Afternoon Television,†From Memory never feels too serious, thanks in large part to Elliott Skinner. Skinner has the neo-soul chops to elevate the sludgy and future funk throb of “Paper Money†into something between Jungle and The Internet. He’s never better than on “Something Out Of Nothing,†arguably the album’s energetic peak with its take-me-to-church claps punctuating his falsetto-grazing tenor howl on the chorus. Based on the number, quality, and variety of songs they send his way, Israni and Sterling’s appreciation of Skinner’s talents is obvious; Skinner justifies their faith without fail.
From Memory slides between the studied sophistication of the Avalanches, the avant-garde panache typical of Cate Le Bon, and the groovy ebullience found commonly among smoother-leaning retro-futurists like Sault and L’Impératrice. Album closer “Sunset?†opens with the kind of widescreen synth riff Tangerine Dream would use to score a scene of a subway slithering through the darkened metropolis, beautifully tying off a fun, arty, listenable record—one always as stylish as it is smart.
