Music Reviews

Damn, didn’t know the ship from Sabnautica made music.

Jokes aside for me AURORA has always been kind of a weird case – a friend of mine showed me her music like a year back and unlike them I didn’t instantly fell in love with it – I liked some elements of it, especially her voice, but I didn’t really care about anything else that was going on, though I understood why people were attracted to her music. So naturally going into this I didn’t have any super high expectations, even though I did have some, beacuse whether you like her or hate her music, you can’t deny there’s a certain level of quaity and pristineness that comes with AURORA’s music – she clearly puts a lot of work and effort and cares about the stuff that she puts out there. But truly and honestly, this album is right up my alley with what I like about modern pop music – the lush layered instrumentals complimented by her intimate voice together feel like a warm blanket wrapped around you that you just never wanna leave. And if you can get past the occasionally over-blown Imagine Dragons-esk choruses, there is actually quite a lot to be liked about this record. There is still your typical dramatic AURORA sound present, but this time there is a more experimental edge to it all and I think that is that something that, at least for me, was missing from AURORA’s music for me to really love it.

Alright, so let’s break this whole thing down bit-by-bit, shall we? I honestly don’t have much to say about the album’s 40 second opener „The Forbidden Fruits of Eden“ other than this is the most AURORA way to start a project and if you played me this without any context I would INSTANTLY recognize it’s her – like this has AURORA written all over it. That more surprising is when the next song „Everything Matters“ doesn’t really follow the typical AURORA sound – or in a sense it does, you have your typical guitar/piano ballad with AURORA singing her heart out over it, but what seperates this from every songle song in this style she has done is the percussion – the moment the drums kick in it INSTANTLY locks you in and refuses to let go. Then on top of that the raging bass that just gives the whole song new life. She has been hinting on going all out with this type of sound with her last LP and I think she truly embraced this sound right here. The distorted kind of deep vocal bits are another detail that may not seem like much but in reality make this song kinda work – it’s the whole package honestly. The next track „Giving In To The Love“ doesn’t waste any time in letting you know that THIS is AURORA – the heavy synths with electric guitar blend effortlessly and if not for the kinda cheezy chorus this would be instantly one of my favorites. Still one of the more intresting songs presented. I LOVE the next song „Cure For Me“ though, even though it’s a bit generic and over-blown, but the SECOND the drop hits, it just gets me everytime – honestly one of the most dancable tracks I’ve heard all year too and another W on AURORA’s part. „You Keep Me Crawling“ is more of what we’re used to from AURORA, but even though it’s been done before, here she really flexes how WELL EXECUTED it is. The melody is haunting and the drums super crisp and AURORA’s voice makes it all click. It also transitions super nicely into „Exist For Love“, which the moment I heard the gentle guitar plucks I knew this was gonna be a tear-jerker in a good way though. And yeah, I was right, this song hits all the right spots – probably the emotional high point of the whole album. The next songs „Heathens“ goes through many intresting ideas, especially the outro of the song which the first time I heard it completely threw me off-guard. „The Innocent“ I like more in theory then in practice – again one of the more dancable tracks, but this one just doesn’t have the same punch as „Cure For Me“ had, but honestly what song does – this one just has a different vibe and it’s still one of the more memorable and intresting songs on this album, so maybe I’m just nitpicky. Now i don’t know what’s up with albums in 2022 having the first half significantly better than the first one, but this one honestly fits that criteria aswell. „Exhale Inhale“ isn’t a bad song and it serves it’s purpose pretty well as sort of a transition point in the album, but some of the electronics don’t really stick the landing and overall this song easily just could have been left on the chopping block and honetly nothing woud change with the expirience I had with this album – maybe it would only enhance it. „A Temporary High“ is a song I WISHED I liked more, beacuse in concept this should have been one of the best songs on this album – all the pieces are there, but the full picture is just missing. The 80s sound this whole song has honestly kind of makes me feel like AURORA has also fallen for this 80s revival trend that The Weeknd started 2 years back and has honestly only been matched by himself in that field. „A Dangerous Thing“ picks things up a bit – I especially like how the song in a way parallels the song „Exist For Love“ with lyrics like „there is no love in the end“, just another showcase of AURORA’s genius writing. The next song „Artemis“ I like for what it tried to do with what seems to be harmonica if I’m not mistaken? It sounds okay and I commend AURORA for trying new things honestly not only on this song but on this whole album – it’s just that not all the ideas work as much as others and this song just should have been like a bonus track or something. The first and only time I can say the chorus REALLY hits the way AURORA intended is on „Blood In the Wine“, my personal favorite song on the album – it feels like a huge army marching towards me and I LOVE IT. The final 2 tracks on the album „This Could Be A Dream“ and „A Little Place Called Moon“ serve as a comedown from „Blood In the Wine“, but they both kinda overstay their welcome – like did they BOTH need to be 4 minutes? The answer is no – and you know me, I can listen to a 34 minute song and not bat an eye, but these songs just don’t have much of anything going for them to keep my attention for even the 4 minutes. I guess I like the trumpets on „This Could Be A Dream“, but they just appear for like 3 seconds and are then again written out of the song – like come on, there was so much you could have done with that, but instead you took the boring route. „A Little Place Called The Moon“ is the better one of the two closing tracks in my opinion as it wraps this whole album together in a satisfying way and credit where credit’s due, the song does have one of the better sounding instrumentals.

So overall, I think this album sees AURORA trying just many new things and while some work better than others, they all cumulate together into one surprisingly cohesive mess of an album. Still if the question is „is this my favorite AURORA project“ then the answer is yes, it is. I’m really excited to see where she takes her sound next on her next project and until that day comes gonna overplay this one to death.

-favorite tracks: Cure For Me, Exist For Love, Blood In The Wine, Everything Mattters, Giving In To The Love, Heathens, You Keep Me Crawling, A Dangerous Thing

-least favorite tracks: Exhale Inhale, Artemis, This Could Be A Dream

Light 8/10