Mas Ysa
Seraph
Stream to July 24
[Editor's note: album contains some strong language.]
Thomas Arsenault has been performing as Mas Ysa since 2012, but Seraph marks the heart-bending, electro-pop artist's first full-length release. (Stream Seraph now one week before its release in the player above or pre-order it here.)
The Montreal-born artist has spent the last three years wisely, building to this soaring, anthemic debut, earning praise from Pitchfork and Vice and touring with Deerhunter and Purity Ring. We should be past the idea now that electronic music is devoid of soul, but Seraph should be the record that turns the last of the holdouts. Every track is textured and tightly wound, like a million ribbons of sound and feeling interweaved, precision and purpose bringing order to the chaos of how we are all sometimes broken children pretending to be grownups.
CBC Music covered the record in its July album preview and the description still stands: Seraph is like being in the middle of an amazing dream, warm and joyful, golden and complete, but then wakefulness starts clawing at you. You push back, refusing to be unhinged from your temporary happiness. You don't just want to dream, you need to dream.
Seraph has club hits ("Arrows") and soundtrack-ready indie pop ("I Have Some") but also perfect little detours like the evocative "Garden," which opens with Arsenault singing, "I guess this garden's good / the snake won't bite you but its master could." Every line unfolds like a flower slowly revealing itself petal by petal as the day takes its shape. His voice never grows beyond its tone of hushed reverence, but there's something so magical about the way he straddles quiet confidence and whispered fear, pulling us in deeper for the real truth bomb, "now you've got some kids to raise / teach them all the words to use except the ones to praise / no, you're too proud."
"This is personal," Arsenault said in a press release, particularly the song, "Margarita." "This is named for my mom, who's also on the cover art of everything I do. It deals with the trauma of becoming your own autonomous person and that person when you see your parent as a fallible person. It's a complicated thank you."
One that crushes and caresses in equal measure.
Seraph tracklist
1. Seraph
2. Margarita
3. Look Up
4. Sick
5. Suffer
6. Gun
7. Service
8. Garden
9. Arrows
10. I Have Some
11. Running
12. Don't Make
Hang out with me on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner.
by Andrea Warner via Electronic RSS
No comments:
Post a Comment