The album artwork is an oracle for what lies within - In Amber. A lone monolith standing in a scorched desert, veiled in a pale gauze cloth. A cloth that in the videos gently moves in a breeze. Veiled in mourning, to honour what is dead, actual or imminent, a portent for the mood of the muse that is arrsing. It feels similar in manner to Bowie's final album Blackstar becoming this sombre swan song. In Amber is a fatalistic album of dystopian hymns to the blindness and indifferent cruelty of humankind. It unremittingly displays no optimism about our current or future state.
ANOHNI, has not only changed her nomenclature but reformed her whole musical demeanour. As with her last album from 2016 Hopelessness, she is in an angrier, more potent, distinctly polemical mood. Concerned about personal, political and environmental degradation. She shares headline billing on this album, no more 'featuring', indicating a far more collaborative effort than previously.
Hercules & Love Affair have also shifted away from their traditional musical territory. As ever spearheaded by Andy Butler, they've been for years consistently superlative makers of modern dance music. Retro in feel, but often pointed and political too. But here on In Amber they have taken a darker more oblique tack. This is much steelier, confronting you with the possible imminence of annihilation.
This mood comes largely via ANOHNI, whose vocal and lyrical savageness really comes at you. The tone of this album can be a morbid one, layered with loss, regret and an unrelenting fury. Tracks alternate between Butler's distinctly muted dead pan vocal style, sad and reflective, counterpointed by ANOHNI's full throttle passionate wail of despair. Settling on anger as the only way left to respond, that isn't apathetic resignation.
From the opening track onwards, pithy lyrical sentences come at you. 'You laugh in the face of death and disaster' - 'Feeding upon my own flesh, eyes afire with what I've done' - "You've won this war by admitting defeat' - 'This body is a place that's never been loved' - " I've lived like a sheep sick with sugar grass'. The beautiful in the midst of misery rolls on.
Its not a party you'd want to stay at for long, but it contains some of the most astonishingly visceral tracks released this year. I've already written a separate article on the track One, which remains stunningly good, even though I've played it loudly and endlessly. Killing His Family, Poisonous Storytelling, and Contempt for You, also stand out lyrically and sonically. Poisonous Storytelling particularly, opens with a soundscape as raw and bleakly harsh as Portishead's Machine Gun.
These are just a few highlights from this strongly themed adventurous album. One so seared, its emotional honesty can make it a hard listen, particularly if you really are just not in the mood for it. Nonetheless one of the years best albums
CARROT SCORE - 6/8
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