Review Summary: Indoor house plants do more than just add aesthetic value to your home - they also can provide chillness and stillness.
May I introduce you to the ‘hardest to review album of the year’, a true ‘all or nothing’ affair that’s as likely to confound as it is to captivate. Still House Plants, a band name as equally hard to get a handle on as the music itself, are either a mostly improvised experimental act disguised as something more approachable …or a songful one hiding behind layers of seeming chaos.
What creates this confusion is Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach’s singing which behaves somewhat like conventional lead vocals at times, only to then either lock into some trancelike mantra or even more intriguingly, adopts the role of another freewheeling lead instrument. Combined with the ever chopping and churning, skeletal Storm and Stress'ish post-rock backing of drums and guitar these vocals somehow feel totally intuitive and ‘ideal’.
There’s a hint of warmth in the tones here that call to mind slowcore like Low or indiefied soul (frequently this music resembles a deconstructed version of last year’s Anohni album). In terms of vocal influence the androgyny and soul most recall the aforementioned Anohni, but beyond that the most outré qualities lead to the usual suspects like Scott Walker but also surprisingly the 'impossible to imitate' Tim Buckley (this voice can also go animalistic/guttural too, which is impressive).
One question is to how much of a degree is this music improvised, rehearsed or meticulously recorded; it’s a question which might have some academic interest but really it’s unlikely such knowledge will change how a listener engages with these songs. To go further, this album feels like a work you either fully surrender to or pretty soon you will hit a brick wall of reservations, so if you feel there’s a touch of magic here it’s probably best not to start trying to pull it all apart trying to figure out where that’s come from. The band’s approach does work better on some tracks than others (closer ‘More More Faster’ in particular comes close to a perfect refinement of their style) but the idea that the skip button could enhance a listener’s experience feels nonsensical/close to sacrilege.
‘If I don’t make it, I love u’ will prove divisive (it already is) and that’s no surprise - for those on board this band are likely to rate as one with the most future potential and it will be fascinating to find out how they develop their sound from here. As long as their music remains a helluva ball ache to review they’ll be on the right path.
