Porches started out making bedroom-rock in 2010, but frontman Aaron Maine has since steered his project into sheeny synth territory. Their third album, The House, retains the polished introspection and cleansing water imagery of previous record Pool, but goes deeper into Maine’s exploration of tender emotions. This is while getting more stripped back and minimalist than ever, with an aimless, delicate immersiveness.
There’s a vulnerable lightness that pervades the record, in spite of fleeting moments of jarring dissonance and numerous spiky dance tracks. Simple lyrics such as “I have no idea who I see in the mirror” (on By My Side) sound isolated in the mix, displaying a rawness perhaps explained by Maine writing lyrics from his journal entries, and recording most songs the day they were conceived. The result is an immediacy that revels in its shortcomings and errors.
Imbued with a melancholy warmth, The House is accomplished, jaded, romantic, and intricate in its straightforwardness. It’s synthpop you sink into, that you dance alone to – most of all, it’s synthpop that leaves you feeling nourished.
