Review Summary: Frustrator.
They’re the next Radiohead! The new pioneers of British alternative and experimental music! There sure was a lot of hyperbole being thrown around by your NMEs and your Rolling Stones when Alt-J shot to fame with “Breezeblocks” and the album
An Awesome Wave. However now that the dust has settled, I think it’s time we faced the truth. Alt-J may be an excellent band making interesting music but they’re not music’s next evolutionary step like the superlative headlines made them out to be.
This Is All Yours proved that. It was a solid sophomore album but it felt like for every step the band took forward, it took another back and so with that in mind, there was a lot riding on
Relaxer to prove Alt-J could live up the hype and prove the emperor does indeed have clothes. So how does it fare?
Well let’s get this out of the way immediately- this isn’t their
OK Computer,
Homogenic or
Mezzanine. It is however an album filled to the brim with ideas and experiments, even if there are just as many misses as there are hits. Expectations can be a tricksy mistress and in the case of Alt-J they have clearly worked against their favour because the music world’s expectations of them have just been too damn high. However when you strip this hype away, what you are left with is a solid album, even if it feels more like a collection of various experiments than a fully cohesive body of work. “3WW” is without a doubt one of the band’s best songs recorded thus far, a beautiful and gentle piece telling the tale of a wayward lad on the East coast, with Ellie Roswell’s vocals only serving to further add to the atmosphere and contribute a genuinely goosebump-inducing verse. If one song should serve to represent the album as a whole and where the band are at in 2017, it should absolutely be “3WW”. This is a level of songwriting ability and maturity not previously displayed by the band and it paints an optimistic picture for the future should they decide to build on it. “In Cold Blood” is the second blow of this one two punch to make up what is ultimately the most exciting portion of
Relaxer. “In Cold Blood” is not only the most exciting song on the album but also a demonstration of how simplicity is often the best route to go, mixing what can only be described as stripped down garage rock with the indietronica elements featured on the band’s previous two albums. If “3WW” was a warm mug of Horlicks to help you slowly drift off, “In Cold Blood” is a shot of adrenaline to wake you back up, featuring cryptic lyrics of a pool killer and a thrilling crescendo towards an exciting chorus with a stunning horn section. It’s a standout moment and destined to be a fan favourite for years to come, with a brilliant video narrated by none other than Iggy Pop himself to boot. And then the adrenaline wears off and we run straight into the brick wall that is “House of the Rising Sun”. Yes, that song. For the millionth time.
From that description alone one would assume Alt-J’s rendition of the classic folk song isn’t particularly good, which would be selling it short. It may lack the punch and memorability of the Animals’ cover but it is going for something different, which must be commended when the majority of artists covering it would be more than happy to just phone it in- as proven by the countless Voice auditions for it where notes being stretched out as long as possible are about as far as the creativity goes. No, the problem with this cover is that it kills the flow of the album completely. Perhaps in a different place on the album, or even on a different album entirely, this cover would have worked but it pales in comparison to the two previous songs and stops the momentum they successfully built dead in its tracks. As previously stated it isn’t a bad cover and the new verse works nicely but it never really builds to anything in the same way the Animals’ cover did and as a result it passes by like a piss in the wind, fading out with the ridiculous line “it’s a happy happy happy happy, fun day day”. Presumably the first thing that came into Joe’s mind when he was in the studio and no one had the heart to tell him it added absolutely nothing to the track.
“Hit Me Like That Snare” livens up the proceedings in the silliest of ways, with lyrics of the protagonist being fisted by his ‘family’ whilst A Moon Shaped Pool plays in the background, to boost the band’s street-cred with the Pitchfork crowd. Taken seriously the song could come off as forced but when listened to knowing the band likely intended for it to be a light hearted piece, “Hit Me Like That Snare” is a joy to listen to with a pulsating bass that drives the song and keeps the momentum going and a memorable climax with Joe doing his best impression of a Japanese man after one too many sake. The band are clearly channelling The Velvet Underground here and the song is all the better for it, injecting it with a surreal quality with dark undertones to keep the listener intrigued. The indie darlings have stopped taking themselves so seriously and it results in a gem of a song. “Deadcrush” may not be as exciting but it builds off the electronics of the preceding track and features an interesting chorus heavily influenced by the
Pretty Hate Machine days of Nine Inch Nails, and although that isn’t exactly something you’d expect Alt-J to pull off they somehow manage it.
“Last Year” is notable for its confessional lyrics and nothing else with a dull instrumental backing and a lack of energy, and “Pleader” tries its best to build up to a spectacular conclusion but the chanting of “how green was my valley” behind rising choral vocals simply sounds anticlimactic after the build-up throughout the song, and sounds almost too influenced by Christian music which could either be a positive or a negative depending on your tastes. If
Relaxer opened with an exciting duality to entice the listener and build up their hopes of this album finally being the one where it all comes together for Alt-J, the closing two tracks quell such hopes and leave the listener with an album full of peaks and troughs and coming away deeply frustrated as a result. “Adeline” should instead have been the album closer, a triumphant 6 minute piece building upon the stylistic themes of "3WW" and featuring what is arguably one of Joe’s best vocal performances to date. It’s one of the brightest spots on the album and one of the most focused, showing that beneath the dodgy experiments and aimless meandering there is a band who are fully capable of making fantastic music worth celebrating.
All in all,
Relaxer can be seen as a transitional album from Alt-J. When the album works, it
really works as evidenced by highlights such as “3WW”, “In Cold Blood”, “Adeline” and (to a lesser extent) “Hit Me Like That Snare”. Such songs prove Alt-J have an abundance of talent and creativity and when they hone and focus it, it can lead to spectacular results.
Relaxer lacks flow and that is ultimately what keeps it from being the masterpiece many were hoping it would be but it does represent hope for the future and if Alt-J can build on the successes of the album and cut the deadweight weighing it down, their next album could very well be the classic they are clearly capable of making. Just as long as they don’t decide to cover Imagine or Over The Rainbow.
