Release Date: May 17 , 2011
Austra’s new album, Feel It Break, is a mix between dance music and down tempo electronica. Opener “Darken Her Hose” is a precursor to the rest of the album. It is quiet and slow, and the main focus of the song is the singer’s vocals taking over everything else. But as the song progresses, a subtle beat starts to pop up through everything else. Suddenly the song has a pulse like a heartbeat and you can’t help grooving to every minute of it. The singer’s vocal tracks are strangely fitting for this dark, almost gothic and industrial sounding beat as it carries throughout the rest of the song.
The rest of Feel It Break follows those same principles used in “Darken Her Horse” with minor variations. For the most part, one song on the album is almost indistinguishable from the last, and the only thing a listener can to do tell them apart is think, “Oh, this is the song where she sings like this instead of like this.”
Songs toward the middle of the album like “The Choke” are cookie cutters from the others on the album, and sadly most of the album seems to be written in almost entirely the same time signature. And lyrically, this album does little for anyone who wants something more than a nice chorus line to sing along to.
The album does have its good parts, though. The first five songs seem to be what Austra focused on while writing this album. “Lost It,” the second song on the album, is probably the album’s best. This is because “Lose It” doesn’t just make you want to dance to Austra’s beats, but as the signer belts out, “Don’t wanna looooose ya,” you are captivated by it. You are brought into her world and feel what she’s feeling.
This doesn’t happen on the rest of the tracks and the weaker songs don’t have the same type of emotion put into them. The next few songs “The Future,” “Beat and the Pulse,” and “Spellwork” are appealing because they flash off all Austra’s studio magic tricks to make this album appealing. “The Future” builds in a typical industrial fashion in which the drum beats and kicks are added to as the song progresses.
“Beat and the Pulse” is the track in which Austra shows an ’80s sound, creating a synth masterpiece that actually feels like it might have been written when ecstasy was still a club drug and blue monday was still something you experienced after eating X all weekend and couldn’t find your way out of bed once it was all over.
“Spellwork” is a pretty song that makes you feel like you are dancing in a club when calling someone a “Goth” didn’t turn them into a social pariah. However, after that track, the rest of Feel It Break is repetitive and can basically be summed up by the first five songs on the album.
If dance music is what you’re into, you’ll see no problem with Feel it Break, but if you’re looking for something more challenging than a 4/4 time signature, Austra might not be the band for you. Feel It Break sounds good the first time you listen to it, but after a few spins, you’ll grow a bit tired of the songs, except for few that really get to you.
Austra – Feel It Break Tracklisting:
- “Darken Her Horse”
- “Lose It”
- “The Future”
- “Beat and the Pulse”
- “Spellwork”
- “The Choke”
- “Hate Crime”
- “The Villain”
- “Shoot the Water”
- “The Noise”
- “The Beast”
