The last time Karen Orzolek made a record without the rest of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it was a set of very lo-fi bedroom recordings about love, written about a decade earlier: 2014’s Crush Songs. This time, the frontwoman has teamed up with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, an artist/producer operating across rock and hip-hop. He was in Gnarls Barkley with CeeLo Green, and produces everyone from the Black Keys to Adele.
Orzolek, a former punk bawler whose airy falsetto is uppermost here, and Burton – a jack-of-all-trades with a retro mien – meet most naturally in the 60s.
Lux Prima, the nine-minute title track, establishes a swirly cinematic head space; the two go on to layer velveteen generously over echo. This album’s default seltzer dynamics are superbly well appointed, but the aim of many of these songs is often occluded by Burton’s knee-jerk tastefulness; a semi-pugnacious song called Woman only just emerges from this album’s dreamscape. Fortunately, Orzolek really channels soul-pop sass and Burton brings the funk on some punchier tracks, like the gentle disco of Turn the Light or the minxish roll of Leopard’s Tongue.
