...Warpaint - Warpaint

Warpaint's Second Attempt. Lectures on Variety

Beginning at the end 

Almost no review of the album "Warpaint" by the LA-based band with the same name misses to compare the album with its extolled predecessor "The Fool", from 2010. As I am unfamiliar with Warpaint's first attempt this might be a good opportunity for engaging with the music of "Warpaint" without prejudices.

Mixed reviews

I first read about "Warpaint" in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), where Alexander Müller called the music "grieving but not depressing." That is not an understatement, since the music is far to clever then to bath in a certain type of "Weltschmerz"  some bands use. Nevertheless, it seems to me that this conclusion, though true, does not get to the point of the music.



Ian Cohen from Pitchfork gave the album a rather lousy review and rated it only a 5.7 on a scale of 1-10 (Metacritic's rates the album as a 75 out of 100). Why Cohens bad decree? First of all, he finds "Warpaint" guilty of setting a "star-making roll-out" in motion, due to the massive forces involved in creating the album. But is this a reason for a bad review? However, his point is that in trying hard - maybe too hard - in creating an album as successful or even more as its predecessor, they were frittering themselves in their ample possibilities. In Cohens view, "Warpaint" does not manage to develop a coherent stream in their music, which leads to a "[...] lack[s] of hooks, grooves, or even a pulse [...]"

Lectures on Variety

In contrast to Cohen's review, I don't miss grooves or pulses in their music. They might or might not be there, this is not what I am looking for in this music.


The first song I heard of the album was "Love Is To Die", which I also recommended on Facebook. This was my first encounter with "Warpaint", and my expectation for the rest of the album where pretty high.

I was hooked in an instance by this music, especially by the strange harmonic situation when the chorus appears for the first time. It is the charm of irritation what I enjoy most in music, and this song remained for me the summit of the album. This charm should especially apply for the song "Disco//very", which is the most different to the others, but for some reason, it does not.

"Warpaint" gives us an insight into the immense variety of styles they have at their disposal, and the talent that might have unfolded at "The Fool." The problem is that almost no song on "Warpaint" manages to be exceedingly interesting, maybe due to the suffocation in possibilities. And a compilation of comparatively dull songs does not make a great album by default. Even if "Warpaint" is giving us a lecture on variety, it neither assembles to a coherent whole nor to a collection of decent songs. It is not boring or even bad crafted - it just does not live up to the high expectations.

...the "Cardigans"

Does anybody remember the Swedish band the "Cardigans"? After their latest album "Super Extra Gravity" in 2005 they pretty much disappeared into oblivion, except maybe for 90s revival shows. The band might still be remembered for its contribution to the soundtrack for the movie "Romeo and Juliette", starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1996. They wrote the song "Lovefool", which is not unlikely the most known song by them.

Last night I listened to a couple of songs of "Super Extra Gravity" and was once more struck by the transition the band's music was undergoing through the years. Back in 1994, when their first album "Emmerdale" came out, the music was called "easy listening." When you give songs like "Rise and Shine" or "In The Afternoon" a try you might experience that this label isn't far-fetched. Nevertheless, "Emmerdale", together with their second album "First Band on the Moon" became one my favourite car tapes.

On "Super Extra Gravity" all of the tenderness and the lightness of their early works has vanished. These songs are nothing but sad, starting from "Losing a friend" till "And Then You Kissed Me, Part 2", the sequel to a song with the same name on the predecessor of this album, "Long Gone Before Daylight." Strangely enough, the label "easy listening" might still be considered appropriate for this music, but in a twisted sense. The songs have, like always, a radio-convenient length of about 3'30'' minutes, the melodies are easy to remember, and they do not scare listeners away by strange singing or playing techniques. Though, there is something deeply disturbing in every track. It's a trap: Take the song "Little Black Cloud": It is, if you share my interpretation, a song about somebody who is used to be let down by anybody, but is willed to enjoy every minute till this particular moment. Nina Persson is delivering these lines on the verge of hysteria, which perfectly matches with its despair. "The Cardigans" seems to be on a descent to inescapable pessimism. In my opinion, they started this journey already in 1998 with their biggest hit album "Gran Tourismo", only slightly delayed by "Long Gone Before Daylight."

"Super Extra Gravity" is the double superlative for a force pressing one to the ground. Maybe the "Cardigans" were trapped somewhere by this gravity after or while "Gran Turismo." As far as I know they are still performing on stage, but if there will ever rise a new album from this dark pit?