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Jessy Lanza sings the same ol’ song on Love Hallucination.
Jessy Lanza, Love Hallucination
★★★
Hamilton, a southern port town in the Canadian province of Ontario, has produced a startling number of leftfield electronic musicians, many of whom share a similar musical palette. Among them are Dan Snaith (better known as Caribou), the duo dubbed Junior Boys, and Jessy Lanza. They’ve all worked together at various points but none as closely as Lanza and Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan.
He co-produced her previous three albums, and while other producers contribute here, including German artist Tensnake, fellow Canadian Jacques Greene and British artist Pearson Sound, the most dominant musical personality is the one that Lanza began forging with Greenspan on her debut LP ten years ago. The music is wispy and candy-toned like fairy floss, while lyrically, Lanza delves into rather less sweet topics, but it’s a juxtaposition that can lose its impact with repetition.
It’s effective on the slyly discomfiting I Hate Myself, where the titular phrase plays on repeat throughout (“you’re so uncool” is the only other lyric to feature), while the plinking, calming melodies are befitting a sentiment far less brutal.
Lanza buries existential angst again on the record’s most buoyant track, Don’t Leave Me Now. What could be read as a basic plea for a lover to stay has a richer back-story, inspired by her nearly getting hit by a car in Los Angeles, triggering a period of agoraphobia. Heady sections of propulsive drum beats and a portentous bassline (perhaps provided by Pearson Sound) play off against Lanza’s familiar airy vocals and bouncing production with dynamic results that should translate especially well in a live setting.
Two-step maestro Jacques Greene is responsible for the skippy beats on the wistful Midnight Ontario, grounded by long bassy notes and Lanza’s occasional slips into a lower register. Her cooing falsetto is ever-present to an almost grating degree across the album, so when she does shift gears, it makes you listen harder to what’s being said.
Jessy Lanza: music that’s wispy and candy-toned like fairy floss.Credit: Landon Yost
Co-written with Tensnake, Limbo benefits from the bouncy disco sheen typically associated with the German producer. It’s another bubblegum-pop track that could be easily mistaken thematically for a fraught romance (“I could spend the night or I could go”; “I’m not good at saying no,” Lanza sings), but was actually inspired by a torturous stint unable to visit her family in Canada while waiting for a US green card.
Drive is a standout, an almost wholly instrumental piece that lends a pastel vibe to the driving-in-LA trope. Pops and bubbles of sound add character to gentler underlying bass notes, while a dreamy synth sequence towards the end creates a more beatific mood. It sounds like something Barbie might throw on in the car while coasting towards Malibu after sharing a spliff with friends.
Lanza is at her sultriest on Marathon, the “first time I’ve written explicitly about orgasms or played saxophone on one of my records,” she has said, and the boldness pays off. Her longtime fandom of Janet Jackson can be felt everywhere here, from the Janet-era sex-positivity to the interstitial giggles and don’t-f–k-with-me attitude. The spurt of sax sounds more welcome than it ought to, by the simple virtue of its distinctness. Despite the presence of multiple producers, there’s a continuity to Lanza’s sound that, four records in, is starting to feel a little stale.
On previous albums, most notably her first, there were weird, clubby and sinister passages and detours that added texture and intrigue to what was then a refreshing new arrival. A decade on, Lanza remains a singular voice, but it often feels like she’s singing the same song.
– Annabel Ross
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