Cerulean
Baths
Anticon Records.
Original SCQ Review
Any album truly worth remembering must have an important memory attached to its first-listen. Even if the record in question is hardly worth writing home about, even if the memory associated doesn’t mean anything yet. Sometimes, all it takes is a certain string of circumstances to elevate a mediocre albums into nostalgia-sainthood; what Cerulean did, frankly, reversed this principle.
There I was, embroiled in Ottawa’s most intense heatwave of 2010 and forced to sleep in the living room, where the balcony door offered some semblance of a breeze. Instead of air-conditioning, my apartment was heated – the kitchen counter, the bed-sheets, everything. And, two Coronas in, I accepted a promo for the sake of curiosity, for any distraction that might cool my nerves until sleep could take me.
Instead, this happened:
Listening to what is probably one of my favourite records of 2010 for the first time right now... too wonderful to believe.
10:01 PM Jul 10th via web
Will Wiesenfeld has a way of celebrating emotions that are congested, guilt-ridden and often uncomfortable. The intended recipient, the “you” in these songs, doesn’t seem aware of how he feels, whether Wiesenfeld’s communicating out in the name of love (‘Plea’) or out of frustration (‘You’re My Excuse To Travel’). Yet for all of his reaching, Cerulean at no point gets down on itself. Thick, stuttered beats pilfer any self-pity hiding behind the effect-laden piano of ‘♥’ no differently than how Wiesenfeld’s multi-tracked vocals soar defiantly against an unspoken pressure to conform or deflate.
A quiet night became triumphant on Cerulean’s shoulders, something this record has done time and time again in the six months since that first-listen. And I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t proven better with each listen.
This video will seriously scramble any first impressions...
...so I've added this one too...
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