TAMARYN - Cranekiss

In the end, even Tamaryn's last shoegaze leanings have thinned out: the dream-pop has shed its remaining wave impulses to sink ever deeper into the synth-pop that the New Zealand-born, America-transplanted artist's previous two albums had already put into play, transmuting it with skillful retro arrangements suited to an audience nostalgic more for the aesthetic than the essence of the 80s.

The attempt is to win over both the Cure crowd ("Collection", "Fade Away Slow") and the Madonna crowd ("Hands All Over Me"), ending up as a faded, bloodless copy of Propaganda or a ghost version of Cocteau Twins in their "Milk And Kisses" era.

"Cranekiss" is a pleasant album, potentially crowd-pleasing, almost perfect in its inconsistency, a well-matched replica of suggestions we've absorbed as the defining soundtrack of one of the most creative eras in rock and pop music, but which, in this retitled and reworked cover version reading, sounds superfluous.

There's no shortage of elegance ("Cranekiss") or ardor ("Softcore"), and repeated listens make the melodies more familiar and enjoyable, but the trick is too obvious, the sounds are fake and contrivedly amateurish, actually too polished and calculated in every nuance to be convincing, and the lyrical and melodic substance falls short.

"Cranekiss" won't fail to capture the imagination of the most devoted electro-pop revival fans, but beyond a brief, if intense, love affair with one or more of the album's tracks, there's no sign of the creative and compositional genius needed to lift this record out of anonymity. In her new synth-pop guise, Tamaryn seems increasingly content to conjure up superficial, fleeting sensations: handle with care and discernment.

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24/08/2015