EMIKA - Dva

After two years of touring and a compositional break, Ema Jolly is back, also known as Emika. Her fine self-titled debut from two years ago earned the young English artist a decent following in electronic circles, helped along by a positive promotional campaign both through her website and on social media, deploying a far-reaching marketing strategy. Given the potential she had shown, anticipation for the follow-up to "Emika" was considerable, fuelled by the effectiveness of a formula halfway between tech-pop and dubstep. Singles like "Double Edge" carried an expressive tension of rare intensity.

It's a shame to note that all the morbid, erotic and sensual tension of those songs almost completely vanishes on "Dva". The new tracks (a full fifteen, decidedly too many) partly rehash the formula of its predecessor, but with the reins loosened considerably: the tempo is often sedate and never really takes off. The sounds and melodies fare no better, coming across as banal and rather crudely hacked together — there's no real sense of exploration, and the synths sound unhealthy, somewhat coarse and poorly finished.

It's not a total failure — the songs are still there, see for instance the decent "Young Minds" or "Fight For Your Love". The string arrangements scattered here and there are baffling, though, out of context and badly placed.

Unfortunately there's little worth saving here; all that's left is to hope it's just a bump in the road — she's still very young and has plenty of time to make amends.

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02/07/2013