Back when I used to blog (on Blogger) in the early twenty-first century, I would use the heading “in my ears” for a regular kind of post on current music I was into. I think I’ll revive it for occasional use.
Today it’s the latest album from Torres, “Silver Tongue”. I’ve been familiar with Torres for a while, but never spent much time with her music before this record. Reading some pre-release press hype made me take notice, and I was especially intrigued when I heard “Dressing America”, the first single. I’ve also followed the career of the painter Jenna Gribbon through some social platforms, who happens to be the partner of Mackenzie Scott (Torres). So…bottom line, I kept seeing talk about the record, and anything on Merge is bound to be good anyway.
The album is a really intriguing mix sonically: it’s primarily guitar based, with beats and effects used judiciously throughout. But the instrumentation embellishes songs that range from quiet and delicate to jarring to almost poppy. You’d call this “indie singer/songwriter” music if you were forced to categorize, but you’d be missing a lot of complexity by doing so. “Dressing America” has this chill, almost lazy strumming throughout that subtly shifts from a slight swing to straight feel. It’s like the sound of a drum machine that’s just a little bit stoned, but still keeps perfect time. And the lyrics are a perfect fit: the surface level reading is a love letter, but it’s undermined with feelings of fear and disconnect.
Similar combinations work their way throughout the album. It’s personal music, and you feel like it’s written for a lover. But in the way that real love is messy, so are the songs. Other highlights for me include “Good Grief” with its muscular, crunchy sonic foundation, and the lead track, “Good Scare”.
I think the current decade has really brought pop music into a closer dialogue with indie rock, and we’re all benefiting from that blurring of boundaries. It wouldn’t be crazy to draw comparisons between this album and the work of some huge mega-stars like Lorde, for example (though that’s not to say this record sounds like a Lorde album; it doesn’t). The social media age has destroyed the old way of promoting and selling albums, but it’s also destroyed some of the needless categorizations. As a newish fan, I can’t speak eloquently to the trajectory of Torres’s music or career, but I can tell you that this record is worth your time. And I shouldn’t need to remind you to buy a copy from the artist.
