Lusine another tomorrow5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() (Better than the original? Dare I suggest it?) But it’s the resigned, way in which McIlwain intones, “I move without a plan,” that captures plenty of ennui and resignation. Opting for a cover in an already-strong album means you better bring something new to the table, and they do. But hearing McIlwain slyly sing, “I loosen my wallet just for you/ don’t do me any favors” is borderline revelatory. Part of Bernard Sumner’s attractiveness has always been the ease with which he tosses off accusatory lines and “Get the Message” has plenty of missives. The stunners are McIlwain’s reconditioning of Electronic’s “Get the Message”, and the weary, melancholic destination of “Without a Plan”. “By This Sound” and “Another Tomorrow” are elevated above mere ambient status into the realm of electro-pop royalty - areas currently inhabited by Grimes, Purity Ring, and Washed Out. McIlwain and those five tracks are inherently attractive because of McIlwain’s beatific feminine presence. Sonically and instrumentally, there is more than enough to admire, but the extra bonus on The Waiting Room are the sublime vocal contributions from Sarah McIlwain, an extra layer of adornment piled on an already substantive record.Įxactly half of The Waiting Room contains vocal contributions from Ms. Pick out any number of elements that coalesce into an impressive whole: the breadth of styles McIlwain demonstrates deep understanding of, the tiny electronic flourishes that go unnoticed without headphones, the climactic sequencing of the tracks. He’s got a list of albums and LPs to submit for evidence of his talent, yet, The Waiting Room, despite its initial slow burn, may be his finest. ![]() Matthew Dear, Mux Mool, Phantogram, and Lusine, the singular vision of Texas musician Jeff McIlwain, an electronic manipulator more than capable of creating albums that can expand your aural sense while planting hooks in your cerebral cortex. But enough about the Postal Service - I did not come to praise it, I came to bury it in the wake of Lusine’s The Waiting Room.įrom the label that may as well be the standard-bearer for innovative electronic-based music, Ghostly International houses consistently creative artists who are criminally underrated in popular music. When songs are chewed up and spat out with the rapidity of a microwave lunch, ten years is an eternity to still give a damn about an album of electro-pop. That’s not a statement of incredulity rather, a statement of disbelief. ![]() Ten years later and we are still commending the Postal Service’s single album, Give Up. ![]()
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