Synth lords Wrangler and baritone belter John Grant team up once again on Creep Show’s sophomore album Yawning Abyss to create a deep, dark, and delightful world of marvelous melodies and strange spaces. Quite a step up from their first LP Mr. Dynamite, Yawning Abyss looks to the future to find any remnants of hope that we may have left to cling to.
Perhaps one of the greater strengths Yawning Abyss has is their ability to portray such a wasteland while at the same time being so listenable. For instance, the album opens with “The Bellows”, a warning of sorts directed at the self-possessed. “When the rockets leave their silos, you’ll be checking up on your follows” Grant sings, his voice bathed in autotune, as a slew of methodical, machinelike synths guide his way. Later, on “Bungalow”, Grant sings of an unforgettable, haunting memory as Wrangler’s synths bumble forward, traversing the dark landscape that this memory resides in. Both tracks illustrate a landscape that seems uninhabitable, but the layered synths and Grant’s enchanting voice make it difficult to press skip. However, in this regard some tracks miss the mark, including the wacky and weirdly paced “Yahtzee!” and the unneeded “The Bellows Reprise”.
Of course, it would be impossible to overlook the title track, as it perfectly encapsulates the album’s gloomy and groovy charm, not to mention it is one of the year’s most melodious joys. The song opens by setting the scene of a post-futuristic landscape of sorts where neon signs don’t rotate anymore and “the light is a strange color like before a deadly twister”. When the chorus hits we are invited to jump into the abyss, as we are enticed with a heavenly melody and inundated with waves upon waves of synth, autotune, and gorgeous production that sounds like it would break our fall if we chose to jump. However, one can’t help but wonder if this track isn’t post-futuristic at all, but a reflection of our current consumeristic state of mind. “Supperware, terrariums, and pink scotch” are just some of the absurd purchases many of us have made and each time we have gladly jumped into the abyss. The question is, are we still falling or have we hit the bottom yet?
Without being overly prophetic, Creep Show succeeds in their ventures to depict a not-so-futuristic world by constructing a solid synth-pop album. Perhaps Yawning Abyss is indeed a warning sign for our future selves, but as Grant sings almost sarcastically “You have to be a crazy person to assert you never wanted this”.
- Nathan Skinner
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