Album Review: Warpaint - Warpaint

Warpaint
Warpaint
Rating: Woof Daddy

Warpaint's debut record The Fool was on many best of lists for 2010, and rightfully so, it's driving combination of icy, post-guitars, languid vocals, and the propulsion of a secret weapon, its formidable rhythm section, made for an intoxicating listen. It's been almost 4 years since that release, and after a lengthy tour schedule along with working on these tracks during sound checks, Warpaint have returned with their sophomore record. There is no seismic shift in sound on this record, the rhythm section is still potent and the driving force behind the tracks, vocals are hazy and dream like, and the guitars still drip like icicles, however, this go-around there is far more atmosphere present, lots of foreboding electronics and hints of drum programming.

Produced by Flood (Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins) and mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead), Warpaint is more polished and slick, but the better production helps define their sound better rather than overcompensating. They leave the rhythm section front and center, while the dual guitars flicker in and out of the mix as punctuation. It's funny that a band with two guitarists puts out music with seemingly so little guitar. While there were more standout tracks on The Fool, here, the tracks here flow in an out of one another as a more collective statement.

Not to say there aren't some big tracks on Warpaint. First single "Love Is To Die" is a sexy, bass-driven charger, the bass line shimmering over the insistent beat, as the cool washes of guitar float in and around, with subtle, menacing electronics fighting to come to the forefront.



"Biggy" piles droning, creaky analog synths on top of the watery mix of bass and percussion, the guitars pointillistically echoing within. Each element perfectly placed in the mix, adding just the right amount of drama and heft.



And there are room for interesting surprises, like the clattering dance-punk middle track "Disco/Very" which could easily fit on an album from LCD Soundsystem or The Rapture, or the gorgeous, album closing piano ballad "Son."

But where Warpaint shines for me are on the moodier, more atmospheric tracks, which draw you in like a riptide. Tracks like "Hi" with its childlike vocals, skittering mix of programmed and organic drums, and swirling mix of guitars and synths, all the while that subterranean bass line pushes and pulls. "Teese" begins delicate and fragile with gently plucked guitars and dreamy vocals, rising tides of watery synths burbling below, the drums and bass line taking over the track at the midpoint, as the waves of synths crash into the haunting vocal interplay. And on "Feeling Right" the pulsating beat and bass line are the meat and bones, but the star is the icy shards of guitars that add a sense of drama to the song, and the shift at midpoint, where the vocals and synths fight along side and against each other, is pure aural genius.

Warpaint is a record that takes time to insinuate itself in your head. I will admit that on first listens I was underwhelmed, as the record doesn't have the same intense energy as its predecessor. While The Fool was an African rhino charging its way through the brush, Warpaint is the coiled snake in the grass, full of menace, ready to snap at any moment and strike. Although the approaches are different, they both have a force and will that cannot be denied.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.