Review Summary: ^.^
It's fairly easy to find descriptors for
Sanatorium - glitchy, indie pop, catchy, Polish, polished, very good - but it's fairly difficult to get to the root of its excellence. That's not to say it's a complex record; quite the opposite. Songs are brief, catchy, and ultimately highly focused. However, within that focus lies a deep appreciation for the sonic dissonance that defined the duo's previous record, the essential early-lockdown companion
Docusoap. Where that album continuously allowed itself to get lost in abstractions (to mostly great results),
Sanatorium opts to incorporate such textures as a filter for its snappy songs.
Opening cut “nowy świat” is straightforward in its composition and sheer catchiness, but also persistently underscored by trippy, borderline eerie patterns. Similar contrasts can be found all throughout the record, but each cut’s dissonance assumes different shapes to fit with and enhance a unique sonic vision. “w południe” transforms itself into a wonderfully groovy dream pop moment by way of (
all the) vocal manipulations, whereas “batalija” yeets itself headfirst into all things oddball dream-trance seemingly for the hell of it and pulls it off effortlessly. However, in spite of all of its expansive experimentations, the penultimate “^.^ bryza” forms
Sanatorium’s very best song by distilling all these strange and concrete elements into two hip-hop fueled minutes of catchiness. It showcases vocalist Kacha at her most effectively diverse while allowing producer boi Łukasz Rozmysłowski to construct a tiny sonic playground for her tones to bounce around in. In essence, it accomplishes everything Coals set out to do and showcases the duo at their most abstractly direct.
In spite of the ground covered by
Sanatorium, it rarely feels overbearing. As Coals shift their way through several styles and vibes, the album retains a clean, glitchy atmosphere that transforms each cut rather than being shaped by their individual stylistic choices. As such, the entire record feels deeply committed to its soundscape - even if “kurort” and “wuj” mostly fail at their flirtations with a more bombastic approach. Thankfully, these two missteps only take up a combined four minutes and are ultimately
fine songs that simply feel like a lesser fit for the duo’s stunningly sanitised sound.
Sanatorium’s duality is a brilliant one: come for the hooks, stick around for the oddities littered throughout. Whether it’s the gorgeous melodies of “ferie x lat temu” or the disorienting whimpers in “plaza”, this album is worth digging into.
