Review Summary: Sounds like an interesting stoner pop experiment
Gotta admit that Kadavar making a stoner-pop album wasn’t exactly on my bingo card for things to expect in 2025. Granted, the Berlin group’s heavy brand of heavy psych has mutated quite a bit since their 2012 debut, but the lush instrumentation and more pronounced accessibility makes their seventh full-length an incredibly drastic pivot. It’s an especially interesting contrast to the spaced out vibes seen on 2020’s The Isolation Tapes and their 2021 collaboration with Elder, similarly focused on textures but in a decidedly more song-oriented fashion.
In this sense, I Just Want To Be A Sound is oddly profound as a title. It’s no doubt the sort of thing somebody would blurt out while high off their ass but also speaks to a desire for adventure in music itself. They don’t want to be a specific sound, it sounds like any and all sounds will do, and I respect that.
Their established eclectic tendencies also make it easy to adapt their musicianship without falling into the watered down trappings typically seen in these sorts of pop shifts. With the guitars often competing with the synths in swirling effects or supplementary chords, the rhythm section ends up carrying much of the weight. The drums are consistently lively and driving while the bass has just enough fuzz behind it to maintain a sharp pulsating presence. The vocals also come out solid, perhaps more prone to layers and the occasional pitch-shift but still generally maintaining that impish tenor.
The songwriting comes out tasteful, the songs never getting too obnoxious as the opening assertions gradually give way to more relaxed compositions toward the end. The opening title track declares the album’s intent with guitar effects channeling stonerized U2, a steady beat, and a stadium-ready chorus that “Hysteria” follows with a bass-heavy stomp. It’s also neat to see how they toy with dynamic contrasts as “Let Me Be A Shadow” and “Sunday Mornings” lapse into more subdued pop that is countered by the garage rock hustle on “Scar On My Guitar.” There’s even room for some lingering spacey krautrock on “Truth” and “Star.”
While there are moments where Kadavar risks flying too close to the sun of car commercial-core, I Just Want To Be A Sound is ultimately an enjoyable stoner pop exercise. It’s unlike anything the band has done before but still feels in character in a roundabout way, its pleasant songs and adventurous playing leave enough breadcrumbs to suggest how they ended up here. I have my doubts about Kadavar becoming the next Ghost or Sleep Token, but I’d be curious to see if they end up in the orbit of a new audience.
