Review Summary: pvris make album
It has been approximately three years since PVRIS made an album, and now they made another album.
EVERGREEN is the fourth album by the band and the first since its (d)evolution into a Lynn Gunn solo project. It is also the first album by PVRIS to just sorta do one thing and not do other things: where previous projects presented different, well written and occasionally unique takes on edgepop (even the mostly middling
Use Me incorporated a wide array of influences), the bulk of
EVERGREEN does little more than yeeting a distorted riff at you, copy-pasting vocal melodies on top and subsequently repeating a few lines by way of a chorus (and, if you’re lucky, this is the part where Gunn’s vocals get a little
grittier, yay!). While this affords the record an inherent sense of cohesion, none of the songs here are particularly memorable or uh, good. Moreover, when PVRIS aren’t sticking to this formula, they’re busy stitching together boring mid-2010’s pop cliches (“SENTI-MENTAL”, “LOVE IS A…”) and capitalising on their inability to write a memorable chorus in the year of our lord 2023 (“LITERALLY EVERY SONG HERE ALSO CAN WE STOP THIS TITLES-IN-ALL-CAPS-BS”). The record’s best cut, “HEADLIGHTS”, is mostly compelling due to its slight deviation into trippier territories, which makes up for a typically underdeveloped hook. It’s a shame
EVERGREEN turned out like this as all the PVRIS ingredients are still there - great vocals, impeccable production and a desire to enhance their pop sensibilities in spite of being permanently stuck with the alt press crowd. But hey, I’m sure they’ll make another album in approximately three years and maybe that one will be more enjoyable and spawn fewer than six pre-release singles (aka more than half of the album).
