River Westin: Saturnine
Self-Launched
Out Now
No third album blues for this one time visible artist and graphic designer, at present primarily based in Upstate New York and transferring a little bit to the facet of his earlier sound, it’s a contemporary tackle one thing very British, writes MK Bennett.
Queer pop has a wealthy and storied historical past within the tradition, relationship again to its earliest beginnings. Typically closeted torch songs, assume Johnny Ray’s Cry or Joe Meek’s unhappy alien genius with the Twister’s Telstar, the inherent queerness ( each noun and adjective ) within the music, masked by melodrama, by no means notably modified with the advanced acceptance of wider homosexual tradition. In some methods, queerness in pop modified when a extra overtly camp sensibility arrived in disco, a shorthand that continues to be prevalent immediately. Joyous as that music is, it shortchanges musicians doing one thing lower than clearly arch, a broader artwork than the stereotype permits. Whether or not, in 2025, the continued assumption that camp equals queer and vice versa is a homophobic trope, notably in music, is a pertinent query, however one for a distinct time. Simply ask Rob Halford.
River Westin has reached album quantity three comparatively unscathed, although it’s darker than its two predecessors, Sweet Cigarettes and The Honeymoon Suite. Given how the world at present turns, although, that’s hardly stunning. River, who excellently self-describes as a “ classic boy ‘ opens with Witch Looking, a haunting and haunted work of wounded brilliance with a Speak Speak/ Blue Nile backing, and the harm marvel in his voice as he asks questions unanswered is pin sharp. A vibrant and practically surprising opener, its modernistic however basic strategy comforts you totally. The lyrics all through are a mix of the political and the non-public, and the understanding that for some, it’s the identical factor. In Witch Looking, the refrain runs :
They’re out looking
They’re coming for our type
Full pursuit
They’re out looking
They wanna finish our line
We refuse
Candy On Me is initially harking back to divorce-era Abba earlier than hitting a extra updated guitar pushed refrain, the melody sitting in a dreamlike state, shoegaze adjoining however resolutely pop with correct 80’s drums and swirling keyboards that give method to melancholy strings. Blush is pure sluggish movement Boys Of Summer time, and that rather more fabulous for it, a breathy and AOR-tinged mid-paced rocker, all ghosted sighs and half remembered smiles.
Speak To Me is the Cocteau Twins as an ’80s chart act; the backing shines and shimmers in an echoed haze, however the vocal grounds it, a juxtaposition that River makes use of repeatedly and cleverly all through the album, blended in with many different influences; nevertheless, it by no means turns into apparent or repetitive. It’s his sound, primarily, pop-rock voices and tremelo heavy noises. Sunday Faculty is an ideal instance of the Gen Z anxiousness anthems he coaxes, a guide for the dispossessed to acknowledge and rally round whereas the guitars fracture into damaged glass and reverb. It’s each a postcard from Amerika, and the sound of Postcard Information, Scotland.
Kiss Me Like You Used To, a downbeat music of remorse like old-fashioned Tears For Fears, huge, sluggish, virtually surf-like in its precision, suffocated by information and longing, it’s each sparse and full, the resignation within the phrases matched by the hesitation within the verses earlier than the refrain resolves itself with one thing like hope. Invisible is backwards-masked magnificence, extra Blue Nile rooftop strolling, a pinch of Chris Isaak within the music, a refrain of pushed desperation because the narrator finds himself alone in a relationship, because the music prickles with concern and paranoia.
Goneboy is a softly picked siren name, like a Flaming Lips ballad, heartfelt however with a possible for the discordant, a plea for leniency on an evening while you simply need to let go, forgiveness requested however by no means granted to self, its masterly strings inform a happier story, one the place all the pieces works out. Low finances however epic, the wolves circle the fireplace. Name Off The Hounds makes use of a hospital go to as a metaphor for resistance, whereas the music paints a extra upbeat however nonetheless ghostly presence, the ice-like chords slicing by means of the echoes, digital in delay and decay. The digital pulses of the scientific repeat beneath, radar-like..
Lastly, the appropriately titled Religion attracts us to the top, a music of hope in darkish occasions, which finishes with :
Discovered religion within the mild you confirmed me
Discovered religion within the place you advised me
You bought me, no folding
My god I really feel I’m residence
Discovered religion within the mild you confirmed me
Discovered religion within the place you advised me
You bought me, no folding
My god I really feel I’m residence
Within the music, there’s a kind of acceptance; the melody runs free, and the progressions resolve, the strings hum alongside and buzz like phone traces, the guitars crackle and champagne fortunately. If there’s a thematic line main us by means of right here, a conceptual undertow the place we’re reminded that life and its politic are eternally linked to life and its politics, through the problem of contemporary relationships, then so be it. If it’s dreampop as queer signifier, then that’s tremendous too.
River’s Instagram | Fb | Web site
All phrases by MK Bennett, you could find his creator’s archive right here plus his Twitter and Instagram
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