[rating=6.00]
At this stage of the game, Andy Cabic’s so-called “freak folk” band Vetiver has become a vehicle for the singer/songwriter’s experimentation in a variety of genres, styles and soundscapes. With the release of 2015’s Complete Strangers, Cabic has arrived at a place where the band is a malleable, living and breathing thing, where he can stylize song arrangements to his will and without a pretense of prohibitive genre. Unfortunately, Complete Strangers does not feel like the band is arriving at new and exciting places, or breaking exciting ground.
The album opens strongly enough with “Stranger Still,” providing carefully-constructed pop made of dreamy environments and populated with mellow, breathy lyrics. The longest track on the album, “Stranger Still” pushes eight minutes of hazy keyboards and drum machines. It is a far cry from the acoustic/electric sound of the band’s earlier discography, but it is also a promise of thoughtful and slow-burning tunes taking their time to achieve equilibrium.
Complete Strangers somehow both fails and succeeds in meeting the expectations of that opening track. In some ways the album is a Rorschach test for its listener. The songs carry on in a similar fashion: the slow burn and careful environmentalism of the instrumental atmosphere. At the same time, there is a significant lack of punch in many of these songs.
Rock and roll most definitely does not have to seem urgent at all times, nor does the genre necessitate danger in everything that it does. However, the very second track “From Now On” is more of indicative of the nature of the album than “Stranger Still” is. The lyrics have a significantly airy quality to them – not meditative, but rather more like an engine losing steam.
By “Current Carry,” the fluff of the lyricism – “How lucky I am to call you mine; I don’t forget it” – is laid bare. This is, at its core, an experiment in down-tempo music; a wade into the genres of chillwave and ambient pop. Having ambience as its currency, tracks like “Confiding” become more valuable, with their sublime moments of subtle openers and lush instrumentation. Unfortunately, there is also a redundancy with some of the tracks that creates a sharp contrast when the album’s only rave-up, “Loose Ends,” arises; its punchy guitar jangle seems so out of place, no matter how excellently the song is written and executed.
If there was a time – and there certainly was – that Vetiver was aptly described as “freak folk,” it is hard to believe by listening only to their most recent album. The notion of “folk” itself is barely evident on this album, as its sound might be more properly described as “ambient folk.” It is by and large a mellow album exploring the subgenres of chillwave, with ups and downs – the patience of the album opener; the quiet lushness of closer “Last Hurrah,” with its lovely fingerpicking and introspection. It is the lighter, fluffier moments of the album that truly diminish its staying power, reducing its potency to moments of lite jazz and depressing monotony. Should Andy Cabic continue to explore the lushness of ambience, he is sure to do so with more success in his next project, but Complete Strangers feels only half finished: an experiment with a less than thrilling conclusion.
