Review Summary: Swinging for the fences
2 minutes and 53 seconds into
The BPM, there’s an eruption. Opening track “Dead” bides its time brooding with low strings, ominous sirens, and a thumping bass, until the violins drop and it’s absolute glorious chaos for 75 seconds. Yes you heard that right, a violin drop. It’s a wild ride, and perfectly encapsulates the boundary-pushing creativity Sudan Archives injects all throughout her volcanic third LP.
I’ve never heard a track like “Come And Find You” before, combining the R&B-pop sensibility of Kelela with the orchestral flourish of Janelle Monáe and, most importantly, the unabashed freakdom of Björk and Arca. It’s as replayable as it is challenging, which is not an easy bridge to straddle.
The BPM draws from a huge array of genres and eras but effortlessly transforms them into a modern vision – “A Bug’s Life” is like if a Gen Z club-kid made a late 90s house banger, while “My Type” warps an 80s synth palette into a futuristic Janet reincarnation.
The benefit of taking such big artistic swings is that even the rare misses are forgiven. “Ms. Pac Man” was a bizarre single choice and it still sticks out like a sore thumb, but you can appreciate it’s camp value as the “Nude Beach A-Go-Go” of
The BPM. It’s silliness even serves to comparatively enhance the hypnotic severity of album highlight “Noire” two tracks later.
I have to caveat that while I’ve named many reference points, this record is unmistakably Sudan Archives through and through. It’s a broadening and deepening of the sound she built on her 2022 breakthrough
Natural Brown Prom Queen, and similar to what I wrote about Amaarae’s
Black Star a few months ago, this new album is an assured leap into more confident diva-dom. In this case though,
The BPM improves in all aspects versus its predecessor, so this shift in attitude is made all the more satisfying by a corresponding musical peak. As she repeatedly chants on the title track “The BPM is the power”, and you can feel that she knows it.
