With each of her projects,
Me Lost Me
's
Jayne Dent
creates an all-encompassing world, and on
This Material Moment
, it's one filled with tension and uncertainty. Though her previous album
RPG
revolved around the imaginary landscapes of video games, the tangible here and now her fourth full-length focuses on feels even less stable. One thing is certain:
features some of
Dent
's most emotional songwriting. The automatic writing techniques she learned during her studies with
Julia Holter
shook loose fears and confessions she could no longer avoid, and she confronts them and the "negative days" she outlines on the brooding album opener, "Useful Analogies."
skillfully uses language's power to capture and subvert states of being on the clanging, crashout standout "Compromise!," where she sounds more defiant every time she sings the titular word.
's return to reality downplays the electronics that made
teem with virtual life in favor of echoing spaces where the past and future coexist, and where
weaves classical, folk, industrial, and rock together seamlessly. On "A Painting of the Wind," a bittersweet reflection on the gap between reality and representations of it, the harmonies and instrumentation allude to styles of music from many centuries before; "Have You Been Changing?" and "Ancient Summer" borrow from icy post-punk, yet they all feel of a piece. The cavernous sonics heighten the timeless quality of
's music on luminous, nearly a cappella pieces such as "Still Life" and "A Souvenir." They also underscore the album's lonely, unsettled heart. The wonderfully eerie "A Small Hand, Clamped" and nightmarish "Take It on Board" resemble folk dirges from the future, offering little reassurance but plenty of haunting mood. A more challenging work than
,
is distinctive, deeply felt music from an artist committed to discovering new ways of looking at -- and listening to -- the world. ~ Heather Phares