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Christina Carter, "Electrice"
This is a poorer than average effort from Christina. The four pieces are all meant to sound similar as they are all in the same key and made of the same chords, but for me, the results show little development beyond self indulgent jamming and sound thrown together and boring. This concept sounds less than exciting on paper and in practice it doesn't work as well as hoped.
The droning guitar strums and Carter’s chanting of "Second Death" are promising for the first half of the song but the song loses its way around the six minute mark. It seems to get away from her and ends up covered in messy noodling that destroys the vibes that she has built up in the first few minutes. This is a similar story for the rest of Electrice. Throughout the album there are moments that could easily erupt into something more compelling but Carter always seems to pull back at the last minute. “Moving Intercepted,” the best piece on Electrice, has a touch of Swans about it, the guitar playing and vocals sound like they’re leading up to a crescendo but it never delivers. The first half of both these two songs ("Second Death" and "Moving Intercepted") are deceptively good. It's unfortunate that both pieces just fall apart and go nowhere, which can be said of this album as a whole.
The concept of using the same guitar tuning and chords hasn't achieved the results intended. It’s not a bold or an adventurous move. It instead highlights the limitations of Carter’s songwriting instead of showing how well she can use a limited palette. While she uses different effects on the different pieces to change the tone of the drone that she builds up with her playing, the four pieces are too samey. Any track taken on its own is fine but altogether it sounds more like multiple takes of one song rather than four distinct songs. This makes it hard to listen to as it feels like a bunch of demos that might lead to one great song in the end.
It's a shame because I know she's capable of better but Electrice and I don't see eye to eye.
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