A project that’s showcased within the niche parts of Instagram, fairy dust does pull into some intriguing sonic palettes. ‘Ballet’, as much as it has its clumsier moments, has enough potency to wade through fairy dust’s melodic compositions, textural variations, and simple yet detailed writing.
As someone who tends to post these reviews in various social media spaces, it’s been rather intriguing how Instagram of all places has been pretty effective in showcasing the content one might like - in my case, that being music - just as long as people don’t scroll into the unhinged nature of short-form videos that has been keeping everyone’s attention, for better and for worse. This shockingly effective focus in Instagram’s algorithm eventually leads to more acts and artists being discovered, one of which is fairy dust, a musical project that he started back a couple of years ago, nestling his work within the sort of aesthetic that meshes nostalgic liminal spaces with picture collages that spills into its own brand of odd spaces. With his work showing up on my personal Instagram feed a couple of times over, it is at least intriguing how that brand of aesthetic will eventually manifest into his debut album, ‘Ballet’.
Within a few repeated listens, there are some interesting sonic meshes that fairy dust incorporates into this debut album of his. Spilling forth parts of synthpop, art pop, and indietronica from the layers of instrumental textures and vocal effects that he implements within these melodies. Providing enough variation that does carry some potency within some of the songs here, such as the rapid drums that neatly lead to the layers of synths and vocal touches of ‘kiss me when the night ends’, the buzzy low-end paired with the prominent guitar flourishes of ‘JESUS ON HER OWN’ that does modulate pretty well from the softer edges into the bulkier melodic patches across the song, the hazy synth whirrs of ‘doesn’t it hurt?’ that adds enough atmosphere towards the clearer low-end grooves and fairy dust’s lilting vocal melodies, the somber melodic touches of ‘hesitant’ that slowly goes into the sharper guitar mix on its back half, and the distorted rumble that pops up on ‘some dreams last forever’ that provides a crack amidst that gleaming soundscape that fairy dust revolves him in, ending the album full of glitchy bombast and warbling walls of sound that suffocates fairy dust’s vocal presence at the end.
Of course, this does intentionally serve as a snapshot of what fairy dust has essentially gone through in the songwriting department. A simple narrative of the protagonist’s longing devotion to the girl that has perhaps moved from whatever has occurred between them, a longing that said protagonist just can’t exactly move away from as there is a sense of desperate deflection going through his stasis. Eventually spilling through the high from the drugs where the lingering sense of rejection and jealousy that comes from the girl finding new love and moving from past tensions might sting him, but even then, that high could never remove the pain that he has carried. Eventually recognizes the process of aging that further requires him to move on and ask for forgiveness, even if there is still that pain lingering within his heart and soul. This then leads to the ending, ‘some dreams last forever’, where the protagonist has moved on from whatever has occurred in the past, but that self-destructive attitude still lingers within, closing out the record with a dulled-out acceptance.
While this brand of brief synthpop swirl does have its moments, especially when the melodies do stick the landing, there are at least a few flaws that do let this record become a little stale. The various production decisions do mean that there are cuts that rely on certain modern drum textures that end up becoming stiffer than others and mixes that can become a bit inconsistent, fairy dust’s embrace of a lot of synthetic vocal effects that may fit the content but does showcase the weak spots he still has as a vocalist - more so whenever they try to go higher in their register or how their delivery can be sloppy at certain moments, and as much as his brand of synthpop does carry some charm to it where the exploration of textures and grooves does lead to variation, he is still far away to creating his unique spin to it.
Thus, ‘Ballet’ does instill fairy dust firmly into the kind of music that he is pulling into, even if the results might not exactly carry the most flair out of it. At its best, it showcases glimpses of quality spiraling through the well-composed melodies with enough textural charm that reflect the simple, yet modestly dim details within the writing’s pill-doused devotion. But at its worst, it does showcase fairy dust’s shortcomings as a vocalist, as well as he is still looking for whatever sticks within this brand of synthpop he is delving into. As it is, it’s a short enough ballet that has enough movements worth looking into, even despite all the moments where it stumbles from time to time.
Favorite Tracks: ‘kiss me when the night ends’, ‘JESUS ON HER OWN’, ‘whore’, ‘doesn’t it hurt?’, ‘hesitant’, ‘some dreams last forever’
Least Favorite Track: ‘next 2 me’