Review Summary: Drab Majesty's debut LP asks that I not try to simplify the ocean.
Los Angeles is a never-ending well of influence and inspiration it seems. From the rising and twisting hillsides bequeathed with unfathomable wealth, property, and premium sightlines, to the valleys where aspiring and despairing artists of canvas, commercial, and celluloid cling with failing grip to the ugly facade that is celebrity. The juxtapositions of these two existences–while not unique to any one place, necessarily–seem as large and as bold in the City of Angels as the giant gap-toothed letters that jut from the maw of its mountainside. It inspires and mocks, in equal measure, the vestiges of human spirit that live under its off-kilter grin. Deb Demure, the alter ego/dramatic androgynous persona of Andrew Clinco, draws from these waters of inspiration with their own bucket in Drab Majesty’s debut, Careless.
While Drab Majesty’s later releases would migrate towards a synth-pop aesthetic, Careless seems to relish the dirt, the grime, and the gothic. Deb Demure’s instrumentation is far more restrained than on subsequent albums, likely due to a combination of budgetary restraints and the former drummer’s continued development as they shaped the identity and sound that would eventually become hallmarks of Drab Majesty’s musical stylings. Drum loops and electric guitar dominate most tracks with synths being used tastefully, creating a melancholic ambience that recalls the gothic underpinnings of The Cure and the early electronic experimentation of Depeche Mode. Combined with Deb Demure’s vocal stylings, which sounds like Dave Gahan if he was tuned down a whole step, Careless is as much of a commentary on the contradictions of Los Angeles as it is an homage to the forebears of goth and darkwave. Tracks like “Foreign Eyes” and “Everything is Sentimental” herald the changes in sound that would dominate later albums as synths and heavily effected guitarwork are used to develop a more layered sound buoyed by a pop-oriented bounce that gives each song a driving energy.
The latter portion of the album dabbles more in the subdued recesses of darkwave. “The Heiress” and “Hallow” act as more contemplative tracks that evoke the feeling of late night city walks where there is safety underneath the streetlights while the alleyways brim with something unseen and unsettling. The album’s title track closes out the album as echoic vocals bleed into a somber and thudding instrumental with a lyrical repetition that suggests a tendency to oversimplify the complicated.
And maybe I am guilty of that as I close out this review. Because there truly is a simplicity to this record that, musically, illustrates a budding artist’s discovery of themselves. Careless is the soft clay that Deb Demure constructs into a vessel that would later be fired in the kilns of The Demonstration and Modern Mirror into something shapely and sturdy. The influences are worn distinctly on the proverbial sleeves of its creator, although that does not necessarily make it a derivative album. Equal parts somber, poppy, reflective, and idealistic, Drab Majesty’s debut, Careless, is a solid foundation for what was to come.
