Illuminati Hotties
Power
**** out of *****
Sarah Tudzin's solo project Illuminati Hotties third release, Power is a mix of catchy pop and indie rock as she slightly scales back her sound to flourish in more relaxed environments.
The Los Angeles based artist became in demand as an engineer/producer for the likes of Weyes Blood, boygenius and Pom Pom Squad and jumped into the limelight as a solo artist with her last album Let Me Do One More.
For this go'round their is a slight musical exhale of tension as growth and maturity enters the power pop and indie rock tunes. Tudzin describes her sound as 'tenderpunk' but this record feels much closer to softer indiepop than anything resembling punk as the sweet saccharine sounds outshine any darkness or angst.
This could come from Tudzin no longer dating and dealing with a fresh marriage as the love songs are covered with affection and catchy lines. "Sleeping In" is the most direct example of this as the poppy tune talks about true love as coexistence, directly speaking the truth to life with someone. Assumingly before that realization, she wrote the I'm-so-in-love-with-someone tune "Falling In Love With Somebody Better" that gushes with praise, buzzing guitars, layers of synths in excellent fashion.
The album isn't all sunshine though as Tudzin deals with loss as well. The title track and the acoustic album closer begin the reckoning of losing her mother to cancer and the changing of the world so completely after that. Things never sit still for long though as Cavetown joins for the Joan Jett rock/pop of "Didn't" while "Rot" layers acoustic guitar and builds with drums and buzzing cello, constructing sounds in sweeping fashion.
The catchy indie pop rock of opener "Can't Be Still" fidgets about as odd sounds squiggle in the background, perfectly coloring a song about ADHD with musical flourishes that keep the ear searching. Tudzin's style can play with multiple genres from tune to tune, "Throw (Life Raft)" is a new wave dance party with shoegaze accents, "YSL" is experimental art pop, while "What's The Fuzz" is perfect 90's alt-rock Buzz Bin goodness.
In lesser hands this would be a straight ahead pop rock rock, however Tudzin adds twists to every song, pushing the genre beyond expected changes in unique and successful ways. Illuminati Hotties are flourishing and riding high throughout Power.
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