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Review Summary: Drab Majesty is typing... Drab Majesty’s brand of synthwave–a sumptuous mixture of darkwave, noise, and attention-grabbing poppiness–is not wholly dissimilar to other synthwave bands of its ilk. The genre itself has experienced a sort of renaissance over the past decade as people continue to look longingly into the rearview mirror of decades past as a salve to protect them from the growing misanthropy that is modern day. Nostalgia comes in many forms: it can be leveraged for financial gain, reinterpreted (for financial gain), repackaged (for…you get it), or some other form of recycling that’s meant to sell us a time and place that has one foot in reality and one foot in a rose-tinted period of memories and content bait that makes dad point at the television while his kid mindlessly scrolls through 30-second bites of 21st century entertainment.
Modern Mirror, the duo’s third album, is a neon-drenched 80s-styled darkwave record that attempts to commentate on our modern day problems set against a sonic backdrop that strikes a fantastic balance of old and new. Composed and performed by a pair of ghostly androgynous personas named Deb Demure and Mona D, the duo explores disconnection, failing love, dysregulation, and our growing dependence on technology to act as mediators of love, friendship, and just general human-to-human contact. “A Dialogue” opens the album with a glittering guitar that seems to ascend into the listener’s consciousness before synth keys and vocals swell into a revolving near-mantra like form of repetition before ending in a building haze of uncomfortable noise. Each track across this 8-song album is thankfully blessed with its own identity. “The Other Side” is more streamlined, offering a melody and tempo that sounds cautiously optimistic even while Deb Demure sings about the fractured love and selfish possessiveness that seems to never leave one’s orbit. The duo themselves get a little nostalgic on “Ellipsis” as they lament the way modern relationships conduct themselves; in that, we tend to hide our true feelings in the blips and bubbles of text messages. No longer are handwritten notes dropped in lockers or hidden within textbooks for the would-be lover to discover in time. We keep our lovers on the hook, three dots appearing and disappearing over and over again because we’ve become too scared to be honest or vulnerable. We are technologically advanced at the cost of social inadequacy and personal connection. And what is the black of our phone screen if not the modern mirror that momentarily reflects our modern misery?
From there, the album continues repeating these themes although it never feels redundant. Topics are recycled or reframed but the music stays fresh throughout. There’s a toe-tapping earnestness to nearly every song that almost sits in contradiction to what is being sung. Songs like “Oxytocin” pay homage to The Cure as Deb Demure sings about love in the same way Robert Smith reminisced about it on “Friday I’m in Love.” Both songs have a sad-happiness to them and, while Robert Smith may have found a glint of truth to his love, Deb Demure equates love to drugs and the brief burst of oxytocin that comes on quickly but burns out just as fast. It’s as if you tasked an android to analyze human love and offer their interpretation of it. Love is treated with a sardonic humor that tends to highlight how weak we can be when presented with love and how ironic it is that something we crave in some form or function can simultaneously be used to push us into voids of unfeeling and dehumanization. How love complicates an already complicated existence and how, as sung on “Long Division”, we can so easily disengage from love when the juice stops being worth the squeeze.
Musically, the album has a full and lush sound buoyed by tasteful use of reverb, delay, and echo. The guitars glitter and twinkle and the drums lend a deep pulse to the album so that there is this feeling of constant momentum. Each song sounds fully realized with fantastic hooks and choruses that will recur in your mind at the most random times. It’s an album that I come back to constantly. Regardless of the themes at play, Modern Mirror is a comfort album of sorts. A little piece of personal nostalgia that doesn’t feel gimmicky or faked.
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Album Rating: 4.5
I've been dying to write a review for this album for a while. It's been a favorite of mine for a coupe of years. Hoping some of y'all will give it a shot. As always, any feedback is appreciated.
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
NICE!!!
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FAT! This album was in need of a review (I vaguely remember that it used to have one, maybe it got deleted with the exodus, maybe my memory is deceiving me). Anyways, love this band's sound and androgynous/android image. Used to put Drab Majesty on during YouTube parties regularly, but haven't revisited them for a while. And I forgot that there was an EP after this album, so thanks for reminding.
I've got a review ready to be published, but I'll wait for a few hours, don't want to push yours from the top right away.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
@Lou, buddy, post it when you're ready. I've just been wanting to write to take my mind off things going on in my personal life and not for clout or attention. Just wanted to bolster our supply of reviews here on the site.
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I need to go for a walk after work anyway, will only publish when I get home and feed Kraken. And it's not about publicity for you, it's about publicity for the album and the band! Sputnik works as a remedy for me as well, not so much personal issues, but we're having a big round of job cuts caused by stupid management of my organization. I am not affected personally, but a lot of good colleagues are, and a lot of people in need will not be receiving medical and other assistance from us anymore
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TWO MODERN MINDS WON'T SAY WHAT THEY WANT TO
I was planning to write something about this album some day, but I can safely move on, pos.
The album art is reminiscent of me loitering in front of a stand of magazines (sans the leather jacket) back in the day, looking to buy and read as many magazines as I could get my hands on.
The album has a strong gothic undercurrent, when I first listened to "The Other Side" I thought that the guitars were played by Greg Mackintosh from Paradise Lost.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
@Voivod, thank you for mentioning the gothic vibes that I forgot to include! I referenced The Cure briefly, but I could have been more specific about the gothic influences. There are a lot of Cure-isms throughout the album that evoke that gothic feel.
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IT'S THE EMPTINESS, THE EMPTINESS
First half of the album is perfect, the second great, I would say the rating average is spot on.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I tend to vacillate back and forth. Sometimes I think the front half is strongest but then Long Division gets stuck in my head. I listened through the whole album twice while typing the review and each time the album seemed to fly by. I definitely think there are standout tracks like The Other Side and Ellipsis but, collectively, it's a very tight and consistent album. Noise of the Void is the only one that falls a bit flat although I attribute that to its meandering opening. It should have been a brief instrumental that leads in to the song. It can be tough to tolerate on follow-up listens.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Love the review! I’ve been jamming this album occasionally, but somehow it never really made a huge impression. True, it has some goth & darkwave vibes here-and-there, but to me it’s rather on the pop side. So more like a darker Tears for Fears than a poppier Clan of Xymox. But that’s not a problem at all, I just miss the depth and spookiness to jam it on Halloween night.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Even if I'm basing it off a one-hit wonder, this album is like if A-ha and Simple Minds went goth. It definitely has a sheen of pop where the music isn't as complex or as dense as other darkwave artists. Like, Drab Majesty is closer in style to A-Ha than they are to someone like Perturbator although both could be classified as "darkwave". It's just a very wide spectrum.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Yeah, you're completely right, "goth A-Ha" is a good way to describe this haha. I gave this album another listen and the back half is actually more up my alley. I wonder what their previous album Careless sounds like in comparison to this. Will give it a go, maybe it is edgier?
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I've actually never given their first album a listen (granted that was all done by Deb Demure). The Demonstration is great and even heavier on the gothic vibes compared to this.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Great band, listened to this heaps when it came out. Anyone knows whether they have something new in the works?
Nice review btw!
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They released an EP in 2023 and a song for a TV series soundtrack in 2024, but nothing since then as far as I can see
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Yeah, what Lou said. The EP is fine. It's more experimental and plays with soundscapes and textures. It's slower paced than most of this record and I imagine it was primarily meant to experiment new sounds for a potential LP in the future. Reminds me of when Blood Incantation released Time Wave Zero in-between Hidden History and Absolute Elsewhere.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Album is fantastic, shame they haven’t done anything of substance since.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Loved this when it came out
Forgor abt this band tbh
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Album fucks so hard
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