The Daily Spin, December 9
Bleachers | Strange Desire
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: Strange Desire (2014)
Artist: Bleachers
Link:
I’ve said it before in one of my reviews, I believe, but Jack Antonoff’s impact on contemporary pop music in the waning years of the 2010s is something that should absolutely be studied - and not always considered in a positive light. Though he’s absolutely displayed his talent as a master in crafting a hit, it leaves much to be desired after significant exposure - take, for example, recent releases by Taylor Swift and Lorde.
That’s not the point, though, that’s something for me to yell about another time. Instead, we’re taking a look at Antonoff’s spectacular solo debut after his time with fun., 2014’s Strange Desire, an incredible vision of things to come and an album that plays fast and loose with the concepts of “indie” and “pop” music to tremendous success.
With this album, Antonoff shows a remarkable ability to oscillate between tempo, with quicker tracks like the rollicking anthem ‘I Wanna Get Better’ handled with the same delicate care as ‘Wake Me’ or the near-balladic ‘Who I Want You To Love’.
The only real miss on the album, in my eyes, is the Grimes feature ‘Take Me Away’, but the rest of it is pretty much universally lovable sound, the sort of pop that reminds someone of Walk the Moon, that mid-2010s joy-pop that feels like you could, with equal ease, scream this in a crowd or in your car. There’s something beautifully universal about this album, its tale of love and loss and recovery something we all know deeply - and though that universality has its own woes and lack of identity, it’s never enough to overcome the personal throughline that people can attach to this album, moreso than so many others.
Rating: 9.2/10
Best Tracks: Wild Heart; I Wanna Get Better; Who I Want You To Love
Worst Tracks: Take Me Away