At 39 minutes and eight tracks, you might expect Alt-J’s third album to to be their most focused, cogent and commercially viable. But it isn’t, and while that needn’t be a bad thing, ‘Relaxer’ is a disappointing offering from one of the most interesting British bands of their generation.
Album openers and lead singles 3WW and In Cold Blood get us off to a running start, though. Both present familiarly idiosyncratic Alt-J soundscapes, rich in folktronica oddness and highly effective tonal changes.
In Cold Blood, in particular, is a marvellous patchwork of musical intelligence, from the machine gun horn phrases and Casiotone arpeggios to the vocals themselves.
Joe Newman’s comically nasal delivery appears to describe a massacre at a pool party - “My pool, summer, summer, pool, summer vibes killed” - while doubling down on effective percussive phrases: “01110011 / Crying zeros and I’m hearing 111s.”
It is reasonable to suggest that if the rest of ‘Relaxer’ was as good as these tracks, we’d be talking about one of the albums of 2017, and probably more awards to go alongside their 2012 Mercury Prize for ‘An Awesome Wave’.
Instead, the album offers up an unremarkable version of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun, alongside the likes of Deadcrush and Adeline. These are pretty boring folk-pop songs that rely on those quirky vocal stylings to make them sound edgier than they actually are.
Elsewhere, Hit Me Like That Snare might be the worst song Alt-J have ever released. It’s A Velvet Underground-esque dirge that, crucially, plays the horrific post-irony card in its jittery shoutro. Here we are encouraged to join in with “We are dangerous teenagers / Fuck you I’ll do what I wanna do.” This line seems to pillory Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name while shamelessly copying it with one tenth of the cathartic energy. It’s annoyingly shit.
But it’s still not enough to undo the brilliant work of those first two tracks. It’s also worth mentioning that the album closer, Pleader, is a fascinating song partly recorded at Ely Cathedral and arranged with great brio and patience. As an album, ‘Relaxer’ is highly inconsistent. It’s as though Alt-J are trying to tick every generic box while also hiding behind their cleverness. There might actually be differing opinions from within regarding the direction of band.
Alt-J Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri June 16 2017 - LONDON O2 Arena
Tue July 11 2017 - DUBLIN Trinity College Park
Mon September 04 2017 - BRIGHTON Centre
Tue September 05 2017 - MARGATE Dreamland
Wed September 06 2017 - BOURNEMOUTH O2 Academy Bournemouth
Fri September 08 2017 - WESTON SUPER MARE Beach
Sat September 09 2017 - BLACKPOOL Empress Ballroom
Mon September 11 2017 - LONDON Hippodrome London
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