Featuring a rejiggered lineup behind frontman/songwriter
Adam Klopp
(bassist
Chaz Costello
is still on board),
Gathering Swans
is the second full-length from Utah's
Choir Boy
. With a gap of four years in between, the album expands upon their debut's murky, forlorn synth pop, offering more resonant beats and denser mid-range shimmer all around. The first track, "It's Over," creaks and groans over gentle, rudimentary piano in the opening seconds before keyboards, guitars, and echoing, pitched electronic drums join in. Effectively setting the tone with a breakup song,
Klopp
's mournful, lilting vocals are as full of regret as the tinny instrument timbres are flush with sparkle. This partly sunny atmosphere lasts for the duration of
, while musical variety is delivered by way of wide-ranging tempos, versatile basslines, and texture, as on "Happy to Be Bad," a song whose stomping beats and downcast post-punk aesthetic manage to cut through the borderline noise of ambient layers of humming synths and electronics. Elsewhere, the self-descriptive "Complainer," which features one of the album's more dynamic vocal melodies, opts for a brisk tempo, bouncy guitar hook, and overall brighter demeanor despite its self-depreciating lyrics. The album closes on a plaintive power ballad of sorts, "Gathering Swans," which adds string voices, brass, and church bells to its lyrically hopeful refrain. For listeners receptive to the album's oversaturated '80s filter, sporadically indecipherable lyrics, and tendency toward songs that aren't so much catchy as immersive,
offers emotionally and physically moving fare with a stylized sound applied with admirably thick brush strokes. ~ Marcy Donelson