Class Actress, ‘Rapprocher’ – Album Review

Elizabeth Harper-fronted electronic pop outfit Class Actress release their first full-length record after the debut EP ‘Journal of Ardency.’ (Terrible, 2009) The Brooklyn band, with Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal, borrow heavily from Depeche Mode and The Human League, bashing together a melancholic throwback to the finest of 80s synth-pop with few surprises.

Richardson and Rosenthal are propagators of the prettily atonal. Tickling out with opening track, ‘Keep You,’ the record is injected and peppered with accidentals and chromatic twirls. There is a profound sense of melancholy, a broad painting of influences like the glum jarring of the Velvet Underground. ‘Keep You’ especially crunches along like deep 70s prog rock. ‘Weekend’ is, frankly, a massive song, smartly constructed and Hemingway-esque in its lean diet of melody.

Where the band tangibly struggles is with lyrics. In a genre of simplistic hooks, it is unsurprising that words don’t zip about like Coleridge’s. But against a thick tapestry of intelligent engineering, the lyrics sound flatly dumb: ‘I wanna keep you in my heart. I wanna keep you. Oooh, I wanna keep you.’ It’s not great. On top of this, Harper’s voice is enormously bland, offering too little in tone, a sad flaw that renders the sound merely meekly decent, never exciting nor ingenious.

And ultimately, this is where we end up. ‘Prove Me Wrong’ and ‘Need To Know’ are so indecipherably similar, one would struggle to separate them from crepe paper. There is not enough here to warm yourself with, let alone get animated about. ‘Limousine’ and ‘Missed’ graduate from this class too. ‘Bienvenue’ continues a ropey French theme, but is undoubtedly the highpoint – catchy, pacey, infused with drum and bass influences, this could be some of the best of High Contrast, with a cuddling aftertaste. But largely this is dolefully uninspiring stuff.

2/5

Check out the video for ‘Weekend’ by Class Actress HERE

By Josh White
Twitter: @joshwhitesays