Is it too early for a Best Albums of 2012 list? It may still be January, but come December theres no doubt that this will be featuring on many. The Brooklyn-based duo of Carline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly have turned out for this, their second album Something, a collection of 11 tracks that taken as a whole, are utterly compelling, seductive, and an absolute joy. While their debut album of 2008, Does You Inspire You, hinted at what the electro-pop outfit had in terms of style, it somehow failed to gel cohesively in the finished product. With the departure of co-founder Aaron Pfenning in 2010, Chairlift now make a long-awaited return as a fully-fledged creative unit.
The over-riding force to their sound undoubtedly lays within the vocal range and delivery that Polachek displays, shifting octaves as her cords wind their way throughout each song. On Guilty As Charged, for example one of the album highlights she is one moment sweetly innocent, the next rides a coy, breathy come-hither shape, before the song itself canters along a juddering bassline like a ride on horseback, to a percussive whip-lash end. More soprano acrobatics come out again on Take It Out On Me, against an 80s influenced stroll of synthed lushness.
It is not, however, to lessen Wimberlys input any. Without his backing vocals and work on the likes of Sidewalk Safari, which rumbles and crashes on a cacophonous opening, Wrong Opinion and Turning, Something would be only half-formed. Elsewhere, the infectious chorus and strident bassline of first single release Amanaemonesia, and the swirling tones of Polachek in front of a staccato beat and rhythmic layering of the uptempo I Belong In Your Arms, provide a lift in opposition to the balladry of Frigid Spring and Cool As A Fire.
Chairlift have become more confident, more focused in their approach, having taken on new ideas and crafted them in what is a genre-defining and all-encompassing move; sticking a pin in dream-pop that pins them a notch above the rest.
Something is quite simply, something else. And something that definitely should not be passed by.