The fourth full-length offering from Brooklyn based artist TORRES (aka Mackenzie Scott) is her first self-produced effort and as she states, it is “the exact record I wanted to make”. The end product is a mix of confessional synth/art/pop numbers which can both challenge and sooth as Silver Tongue flows along.
The album opens with the first single “Good Scare” using a pumping electro beat to set the scene as Torres sings in a high register about a crumbling relationship, nailing it with the line “You make me want to write a country song/Folks here in New York get a kick out of”. The beats and upbeat singing take center stage on the new wave-influenced “Dressing America” and “Records of Your Tenderness” which employs laser-like synths and ominous buzzing
Things take a more experimental pop twist on the scratchy “Last Forest” delivering big guitars in the chorus while “A Few Blue Flowers” strips out the sound to distant synths, modern sparse drum beats and a vocal that sings “It was everything I wanted” with utter disenchantment.
“Two of Everything” starts along this same successful path with minimalist sounds and a lonely, wounded vocal for TORRES singing to a lover’s lover before rising and swelling to overloading proportions. “Good Grief” vocally toys with fetishizing sadness around a rock heavy groove before abruptly cutting off after its engaging extended run time.
The acoustic strumming of “Gracious Day” adds an organic layer to the album as Scott sings an out and out love song with engaging passion in straight-ahead fashion before the title track closes the album by ratcheting up the electro late night club vibes. Silver Tongue is an excellent collection of Scott’s strengths as a producer, performer and songwriter as her sounds run the gamut from modern pulsing anxious odes to open confessional natural pleas, each delivered with grace and ease.
