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If I Don’t Make It, I Love U, Still House Plants

If I Don’t Make It, I Love U, Still House Plants

The third LP from British experimentalists Still House Plants is a force unleashed. The group have been unpacking their improvisational bag since forming at Glasgow School of Art, but this is their most expansive statement yet: governed by whims and tangents, at no point concerned with making instruments sound the way they should. M M M and Sticky are ear-bending, no-wave odysseys that require immeasurable trust to navigate – from them and listeners alike. That the trio are able to create such intricate interplay with one guitar and drums alone is impressive. But it’s Hickie-Kallenbach’s vocals that galvanise. Her soulful vibrato lands on gravel, somewhere between late-era Scott Walker and only-era Lauryn Hill. What’s especially wonderful is this album’s ability to reconcile formal experimentation with everyday lyricism. “I wish I was cool” and “I just want my friends to get me” are hardly dispatches from the Tortured Poets Department. But, when the music goes high, the lyrics go low – and the band demonstrates bravery with both.


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