Lavair detours to rock infused electronica in 'Artificial Soul' with mixed results.
Well, this took long enough.
Lavair’s output is pretty good for the most part. While I did have some issues with his debut when I was still recent on music criticism, I did manage to appreciate the varied EDM and folktronica scope. And while I found myself overrating his sophomore project, it’s still a pretty good electronic music that dipped into darker tangents. But for this third record, which is more conventional due to implementation to more singing and more rock elements as well as stating that this is methodically thrown together than his past projects allowed me to be skeptical, but still hoping that he would push through with a quality record once again.
And with that, it’s Lavair’s weakest project to date. A project where it’s dragged down by the familiar but unpolished EDM production that is compensated by guitar passages that drive things back to quality, and Lavair’s vocals where he does try to be dramatic but just couldn’t hit that tone due to his vocal timbre. These issues lie with certain songs like ‘Made It’ with its accelerating guitar chords that Lavair’s vocals just can’t reach, ‘Temporal Patterns’ and ‘You All Know’ thanks to its pulsating but flat textured electronic beat that the vocals just don’t mesh in the same way, ‘Lyresong’ with the slow tempo guitar passages paired with Lavair’s droll in the vocals yet again, and then we have ‘Chain Theory (I Feel Like A Scientist)’ which is probably the most disposable track in the album due to that meandering monologue despite a pretty cool drum and guitar work underneath it.
And while I do get why he has to feel a bit dramatic, to hit that same swell that’s shown in the somewhat-earnest writing about falling out of love and dealing with the lingering effects of that heartbreak. It just doesn’t work effectively, which is disappointing because there are songs here where the compositions paired with his mellower vocal timbre does hit that earnest sweet spot, like in ‘Something’s In The Dark’ with its languid and sorrowful guitar and drum pickups, ‘An Offer’ that starts with a slower guitar tempo before throwing it all away to make way for an electric guitar solo and tempered screaming to end the album on a good note, and then there’s ‘Shimmer’, which sounds pretty inspired by Radiohead due to that multitracking at certain segments of the song, and it’s the best song that Lavair did in this album.
‘Artificial Soul’ seems like a transitional record for Lavair, like a project that he wanted to put out before proceeding through with a much stronger project. Again, it is his least stunning album to date, but there are enough potent moments that hold this enough to not be a total failure.
Favorite Tracks: Shimmer, Something’s In The Dark, An Offer
Least Favorite Track: Made It, Chain Theory (I Feel Like A Scientist)