★★★☆☆
Three Stars
SOHN – real name Christopher Taylor – is a British musician, but his work is immersed in the traditions and atmosphere of his home in Vienna. His debut album Tremors draws influences from the burgeoning electronic scene in the city while also drawing inspiration from British and American artists. First and foremost, he’s from the James Blake school of electronic crooning, but influences from Frank Ocean and The Weeknd are evident in his soulful musings.
Initial tracks ‘Oscillate’ and ‘Warnings’, released back in August 2012, were impressive, filled with an emotional and a musical maturity that announced SOHN as a future big-game player. Both these tracks are, disappointingly, missing from Tremors. Last year’s ‘Bloodflows’, SOHN’s first release on 4AD, raised him to a whole new level. Where previously the electro had carried his singing, lyrical proficiency now reared its head. Naturally, this huge single couldn’t stay off his debut album, but unfortunately it feels somewhat isolated.
No other track on Tremors has the same lyrical depth, nor is any other track as deftly and subtly put together. One gets the feeling that, overcome by his own brilliance with ‘Bloodflows’, SOHN decided that anything else he did would turn out equally well. But the standard has dropped. Lead single ‘Artifice’ has some excitingly energetic beats, but all of SOHN’s beauty was in his subtlety, and it’s difficult to be subtle when you’re belting out “somebody better let me know my name/before I give myself away” (as cheesy a chorus as you will find anywhere this year) over a made-for-club electro riff. In fact, ‘Artifice’ perfectly exemplifies the main problem with this album. Interesting musical threads are weaved together to form a coherent and intriguing pattern; the tapestry becomes slightly more complex as the vocals are introduced… and then the H&M-advert-hook ruins everything. And when SOHN does slow down on ‘Paralysed’, he’s forgotten that he’s an electro artist and makes do with a plodding piano accompaniment.
Even the wonderful voice distortion on ‘Bloodflows’ and ‘Oscillate’, which had Taylor’s vocals blend into the sound of a repeating synth in a confusing and wonderful way, is overused to the point of exhaustion. This is not to say that the album is a complete disaster. Most of the tracks have something interesting about them. SOHN’s use of digital effects and distortion is still excellent, and Tremors might even make a fine instrumental album. ‘Lessons’ and ‘Bloodflows’ are still great, and title track ‘Tremors’ makes an impressive ending to the album, epic but understated. However, the lack of imagination in the lyrics and the incredible overkill of Taylor’s ‘haunting’ tone makes for a disappointing overall effect, which is a real pity considering the quality of his early work.
