April 28, 2023 - Another Dove
Being a human is weird. Despite our best efforts to force the otherwise, what we call “existence” happens in multiple timelines simultaneously—past, present, and future, at least. The psyche takes a swirling soup of information from all directions and creates a sensible explanation that we can walk around holding onto without throwing up blood and guts. Somewhere, we invented “linear,” defined “linear” as “comfortable,” and defined our sensible explanation as “linear.” Thus, we tell the stories of our lives. And as walking black boxes of the sublime, we can’t fathom the complexity of how we figure out what we are, moment by moment, even with all of this brainpower. It’s why we can’t get enough silly love songs. It’s why some illness comes without a clear cause. It’s what makes ChatGPT cute.
All of the above are things musician Avalon Emerson understands better than most. In & the Charm, Emerson uses the language of place in time and space to define herself and what she is. Filled with conceptual dualities like “you” and “me,” “here” and “there,” “then” and “now,” “desert” and “oasis,” “old” and “young,” “east” and “west,” Emerson explores relative comparisons in playful existential poetry that’s fresh and modern and contains moments of levity.
& the Charm also demonstrates a stylistic departure from Emerson’s banging DJ sets and stamina for the late-night underground club culture we know her for. Here she presents us instead with an artful subversion of expectations, a recording with lyrical poetry and indie pop song structure, and a pinch of twee along with the impeccable magpie ear that made her a star. Emerson peels back the curtain to share something tender, soft, introspective, expertly loose, and confident. It is a magnificent gift.
Sometimes the oppositional forces cut the head off the snake and then chop its body to pieces. For example, ‘Entombed in Ice’ croons a chorus describing them “entombed in ice at the center of the inferno,” painting the drama of that oppositional impossibility. She also flips the placement of “them” as a subject in the syntax of a repetitive phrase back and forth with “you” to communicate their action and your reaction. If all of these polarities weren’t enough, there is a platitude sprinkled throughout to teach us the lesson, “when one door closes, another opens.” This song is about a change in relationship, a shift in order, and a call to action. Could be a breakup song, though I won’t say that’s the only read.
Another example, ‘Hot Evening’ is a love and longing song sung in allegories of landscapes, of where I am now versus where you are now, where we were, how it feels to be in all of those places, and what weather we create together outside of all the other aforementioned realities. A lot is going on in the meaning of the words on this track, but they communicate the point clearly—even though life can be a draining experience where everything blurs together, and even though love can’t remove the melancholy, it makes living better.
Other dualities are delivered with a little more subtlety, though thankfully not at the expense of clarity. ‘Astrology Poisoning’ points to how weird it feels to accomplish a creative life and grow up in it, the relationship between success and isolation, how abstract it makes you from those you knew and the strangers who know you, how you become a ball of energy in space alone, an “unreality star.” ‘Karaoke Song’ is a phone call with a distant friend, you’re searching for the very best questions to ask to reconcile who you knew them as before, who they are in your memory, and who they are now. ‘A Dam Will Always Divide’ closes the album with a psychedelic euphoria and a distant pillowy melody pointing out a bit of hypocrisy.
I love it when artists take risks and make something as surprising to themselves as it is to their listeners. There’s a delight to & the Charm that can only come from this process, and an energetic warmth radiates from all of these songs. Emerson embraces a beachy indie pop synth wonderland that sparkles and takes me back to my halcyon days of early adulthood, talking about long-haired boys and philosophy over too much coffee, trying to figure it out while luxuriating in a new self-awareness and intellectual freedom. Her questions ask something painful about identity and are delivered with an innocent optimism that breaks my heart. ☔