You’d be forgiven for thinking that Screen Memories, the fourth album from experimental synthpop artist John Maus, would be something of a drag. Recorded over a six-year period, while its creator embarked on a PhD in political science and handbuilt an entire studio’s worth of equipment, the follow-up to We Must Become Pitiless Censors of Ourselves is a treatise on what Maus describes as “the apocalyptic moment … the absurd faith that everything that is uncounted will be counted”. Wade past the verbose mission statements and doom-laden subject matter, though, and Screen Memories makes for a surprisingly buoyant listen, possessing an infectiously mordant sense of mischief. Touchdown and Pets (sample lyric: “All your pets are gonna die”) tiptoe along the same line between pastiche and parody as the work of longtime Maus associate Ariel Pink, though crucially never let the self-aware shtick overcome a keen ear for melody, while there’s genuine poignancy in the album’s more reflective moments, most notably in the sombre synth arpeggios of opening track The Combine.
