The Daily Spin, October 9
Roosevelt | Embrace
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 song from each album right here.
Album: Embrace (2023)
Artist: Roosevelt
Link:
Four albums in, it’s clear that at his best, Roosevelt is the absolute king of indie dance. From his self-titled debut in 2016, through Young Romance and Polydans, he’s established a definite sort of groove that affects his synth-pop in a way that displays remarkable depth and capability.
Embrace follows in that path, and though it doesn’t feel as though Marius Lauber has evolved his sound a great deal, it’s also remarkably clear that he doesn’t need to change it. By adding these minor points and building upon the beauty that he already curates so effortlessly, Roosevelt is able to put together these fantastic stories, weaving hours of music together with finesse that I feel is rarely shown in electronica.
My greatest gripe is that, over four albums, it all begins to sound a little indistinguishable. This is Polydans with a little more flair in the guitars, and though that’s undoubtedly welcome, as the best of his previous work has that fantastic multidimensionality to it, there’s little else to show that this is anything but the B-sides from his previous work. Evolution is important, and failure to demonstrate that can be a major issue.
Then again, when it’s all this good, does it really matter? I think my answer is no.
Rating: 9.3/10
Best Tracks: Paralyzed; Lake Shore; Fall Right In
Worst Tracks: Realize