Review Summary: A total mess of an album which is worth your time
Full disclosure: my personal opinion of Indigo De Souza’s breakout 2021 album
Any Shape You Take is less glowing than most - for me, its brilliant attributes were at least partially counterbalanced by a lack of cohesion and a rather uneven quality throughout the tracklist. That said, the album’s unusually diverse blend of Japanese Breakfast-style bouncy pop with grungy rock and distressingly emotional shrieks on the unique “Real Pain”, all tied together as best as possible by De Souza’s blunt and unrelenting lyrical delivery, were imbued with an obvious sense of potential. In addition, the wide-ranging nature of the effort left the next step in the young singer-songwriter’s trajectory intriguingly up-in-the-air.
Now, said next step is here…
All Of This Will End is a bit of a doozy, maintaining a hold on all the diverse tendencies De Souza’s previous musical output has accumulated and then dragging in a bunch of alt-country influences which have only been hinted at before. De Souza’s long-standing preference for in-your-face, simple but effective lyricism has also been cranked to 11, a trait from which this record derives a lot of its appeal, but which can also backfire at times: for an example of the latter, I’ll point you to the clearly-articulated thesis of opener “Time Back”, delivered in a moment with minimal musical backdrop -
”you’re bad, you suck, you fucked me up”. Perhaps a bit
too on the nose, but I guess we didn’t miss the point either. With that criticism delivered, though, for the most part, this record delivers on its premise. If recent 2023 standout album
Rat Saw God from fellow indie up-and-comers Wednesday (an effort which comes across as a comparable work multiple times during a cursory listen) unveils a series of vignettes on Southern rural life through its blunt lyrical narratives,
All Of This Will End aspires to do the same with its snarling takedowns of bad-acting men, whether it’s the abusive romantic figure of “You Can Be Mean” or the absent father of “Always”.
All Of This Will End is structured interestingly, with the first six songs all quite short (under three minutes) before the last five tracks are more lengthy (if none are remotely prog-style epics). Broadly, this breakdown correlates with musical style, with earlier offerings leaning towards indie pop mixed with punk and grunge. The back half, meanwhile, is more diverse, including moments of screaming alongside a number of dance-y tracks a la “Smog” and “The Water” before the last two tracks kiss off the album -”Not My Body” and “Younger & Dumber” feeling more contemplative and with richer arrangements, firmly influenced by a serene kind of alt-country, grand and full of weepy guitar. My personal take is that I’d love to see De Souza’s next album delve further into this sound, which is reminiscent to some degree of Angel Olsen’s recent ventures.
Frankly, there’s no denying that
All Of This Will End is a mixed bag, an assessment I’ve given to all three of Indigo De Souza’s three albums so far. But, with every listen, I’ve become more enamored of this record, warts and all. Its unusual mishmash of styles (par for the course with this artist) and occasional moments of overreach aside, this is the kind of release which still manages to tug at the listener’s heartstrings at the right moment, an effect emphasized by the kind of sprawling penultimate/ultimate closing duo which so many artists aspire for but which is delivered to near-perfection here, even if those two songs are notably differentiated from basically anything else on this odd tracklist. The secret weapon Indigo De Souza is wielding here, though, is her gift for melodies. This might not seem to be the case on initial listens, given a general sense of abrasiveness and the vaguely half-assed feel of a Side A composed of very short tracks full of lyrics written by someone who swears like a sailor, but it slowly comes into focus that nearly every song here is pretty darn catchy, from the fast-paced, pissed-off bar band vibe of the early material to the sun-drenched reflectiveness of the album’s more spacious concluding moments. Even that kind of steadily-unveiling catchiness will get you pretty far as a musician, and it’s the type of realization which makes me confident Indigo De Souza will continue to slowly build her repertoire until she releases something I can finally recognize as an unadulterated classic.
All Of This Will End is the type of album that will alternately satisfy and disgruntle the existing fanbase, but for me, it’s just another uneven but worthwhile step on an emerging artist’s journey. As De Souza states on the title track, a tune I find appealing for its enviable ability to merge nihilism with genuine wholesomeness, she’s
“only moving through and doing my best”.
