Threats are almost always more effective when they’re whispered as opposed to shouted. Los Angeles four-piece Warpaint do hushed, creepy music that sounds like a threat even when it isn’t. Debut long-player The Fool is veiled in the shadowy stupor that made Cat Power’s early albums so alluring.
Threats are almost always more effective when they’re whispered as opposed to shouted. Los Angeles four-piece Warpaint do hushed, creepy music that sounds like a threat even when it isn’t. Debut long-player The Fool is veiled in the shadowy stupor that made Cat Power’s early albums so alluring. The more quiet, the more disquieting the effect – it’s as if the band are slumped around an ouija board in a candle-lit room, but somehow playing their instruments at the same time.
This bewitching aesthetic is captured to greatest effect on album standout Undertow, which had a vexing, voodoo-like quality and makes you feel like you’re slowly sinking in black tar (and somehow enjoying it). Likewise, spare ballad Baby strips things back to reveal a sad, lonely skeleton of a song. It’s something of a shame that the haunting Billie Holiday (from their Exquisite Corpse EP) doesn’t make a showing here – it shares the subtle qualities of these tracks, while somehow making My Guy lyrics sound spooky. Perhaps download this one as your own ‘bonus track’ to tag on to the end of the album, it’s worth tracking down.
While the several remaining tracks don’t quite send shivers down the spine, they still evoke the same swampy, sinister atmosphere. There’s wallowing, moody guitars and intoxicating dual vocals from Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, but the star of the show is the thick, velvety bass from Jenny Lee. By all accounts, they are mesmerizing live – lucky for us, they’re coming down as part of next year’s Laneway line-up.
LA may inspire pop about beaches, boys and sunsets, but it’s nice to hear the flip-side of the likes of Best Coast and delve into the darker side of California.
