Gross, the review of the Virgin album

There is a lot of space in the new album of Gross. Few sounds support the voice. The electronic lines of low rumble and mark time, as percussion. The pieces are bare in the arrangement, for give words the opportunity to arrive direct. During his writing New albumGross admitted that he had read a lot Annie Ernaux. An emotional and generous voice, from which he took inspiration for the texts of Virginhonest and altruistic, with few leziness – if the adolescence is excluded Daughter favouritis. The fourth album of the New Zealand singer -songwriter is raw and physical, like a bodytrue protagonist of the work.

Sexual purity has nothing to do with itOn the contrary. The movement with which Lorde occupies the space left free from the arrangements is a lot carnal. The artist dances, chews, spits, sweat, drinks, smokes, melts crystals in a glass, falls, recites, runs. All the images and actions described are vital and sincere, but uncomfortable. Like the photography chosen for the cover: the X -rays cross the gross body and show its pelvis, adorned with a zipper, a buckle and a contraceptive spiral.

Thistle Brown, 1996-98 Accusoft Inc., All Rights Reserve

Everything floats in the blue of the radiographic slab. Observe it while listening Virgin helps to understand it. The implosion of songs such as Shapeshifter And Current Affairs – The two most engaging, dark and deep – acquires even more meaning and is charged with emotion. Just as it happens with the radically sparse Clearblue: voices and vocoders (cf. Imogen Heap) to put his in line Reflections on unprotected sex and on the shocking emotion of meeting a accidental conception. Or as it happens by listening Broken Glasspoetic catharsis of a eating disorder. Everything is raw and honest, and therefore understandable.

Also, putting the body and physicality in the center, Virgin It is also a work that reflects on identity. In HammerGross digs in his opposites and keeps them together. It builds an idea of ​​personal femininity, which is not comfortable within a clear identity declaration, but rather in a sincere and always moving story: “Some days, i’m a Woman, Some Days, i’m a man”.

Four years have passed from the exit of his third album, Solar Power (2021), which with its acoustic sounds divided criticism and fans. In this period, gross continued to write and imagine the new albumfar from the previous one. And also for this reason, to get away from the past, gross has chosen to enter the New York studio in 2023 with a different producer. At his side now there is Jim-e stack and no longer the faithful Jack Antronoffwith whom he had worked practically for the last ten years of his career. A decisive change for the evolution of his sound that gross hugged with enthusiasm. It was time to be reborn, to reinvent yourself. And to write Virgin.

Playlist

Ministers – Approach the coffers

Frah quintal – Lightning

Eevee (feat. Pauline Mykell) – Tequila Shots