“Is it self-destruction or pure of heart?“
claire rousay isn’t interested in standing still. Fans of her work will be familiar with her wide sonic range from oppressive musique concrète, to electronic glitchiness to floating ambient drones that she puts under the “emo ambient” umbrella term. rousay is also remarkably prolific, releasing dozens of releases in the past five years alone, including a large number of collaborative projects. Their discography can be understood as the musical equivalent of diary entries with the work having an unusually honest quality, and it’s with that understanding that one should approach her latest album, sentiment.
rousay’s big breakthrough came with 2021’s beautiful a softer focus, a wonderful album that mixes warm ambience with humdrum field recordings. sentiment sees rousay breaking new ground with lo-fi ambient pop, the album is centred around a set of pop songs that share a set of common features: stripped-back guitar riffs, spacious electronic beats and highly processed vocals. The lyrics largely focus on the recurring themes of nostalgia and regret, conveyed in the tone of a confessional diary that gives these words emotional authenticity.
On paper, it’s almost impossible to imagine the architect of 2020’s unnerving i’ll give you all of my love releasing a set of pop songs on sentiment. The two albums unquestionably share the same artistic DNA which in itself is quite an achievement. rousay fans will recognise some of the shimmering ambience that made a softer focus such a special album and will delight in the instrumental tracks “iii” and “sycamore skylight”. The strongest moments of this album, such as “please 5 more minutes”, are those where this ambience melds with the pop songs. rousay could very easily have leaned into a catalogue of post-rock tropes to give these tracks some more punch but thankfully doesn’t, such tricks would have felt insincere.
There are no dud tracks on this album, those who approach this album without any prior exposure to rousay’s discography might find it to be one-dimensional. I would highly recommend dipping into some of rousay’s other work before giving sentiment a listen. rousay’s musical output is essentially her way of sharing her diary with the world, and listening to sentiment by itself is the equivalent of reading one page of a diary by itself: it’s best appreciated in its context.
rousay’s music is never bold, or confident, or polished, she is not interested in conforming to expectations or fitting in with a niche. Neither is she flitting from genre to genre for the sake of it. She is simply being herself. In that sense, sentiment further establishes rousay as an artist in the truest sense of the word.
7.5/10
sentiment is set to release April 19th via Thrill Jockey and can be pre-ordered here.