by Ben Miles (@benrmiles)
A lot has changed since Edwin Stevens, aka Irma Vep, released his debut album, HAHA, in 2012, a sensitive lo-fi LP full of tracks that barely reached beyond the three and a half minute mark. Now on his fourth album proper, Embarrassed Landscape, Stevens is using tension and release as his plaything on an album that flits between murky angst and heart-wrenching sensitivity. The Welsh-born Glasgow-residing musician has taken the diverse range of ideas from his previous work and raised the bar for the lo-fi psych-rock genre on an LP full of perfect contradictions and endless uncertainty.
Embarrassed Landscape moves binaurally between high-energy uneasiness and mellow respites whose lyrics are anything but. Opener “King Kong” is a thunderous ten-minute long examination of social anxiety that itself begins on a crashing five-minute instrumental. The track leaves you in no doubt, however, as to the direction of the rest of the album. This will be a raucous but refined, a transcendental but fleeting listen that will take you from one extreme to the next in a matter of minutes.
Followed by the first of the album’s softer offerings, “Disaster,” we are re-introduced to Stevens exceptional song-writing ability. A brutal exercise in self-examination where Stevens’ intricately plucked guitar lines shine through on the mix for the first time. This sudden change in pace draws the listener in as we vainly focus on what is left unsaid.
Continuing in this brutally alternating pattern the rest the album has some serious standouts as Stevens’ music finds its place somewhere between garage-psychedelia and folk-rock. “I Do What I Want” is a rebellious anthem brought to life by some shrieking guitar riffs and a riotous drums. The lead single to this album is on first listen a classic of its genre, replete with a guitar riff ready for festival audiences and a tempestuous Stevens howling the title towards the end. This track is also full of intricate segues, unpredictable beats and majestic breakdowns to create something far more complex than just an anthem for boozed up festival crowds.
“Tears Are the Sweetest Sauce” and “Purring” are the hearth-breakers of this album, both putting me in mind of countrified versions of Leonard Cohen. Stevens’ vocals are the leaders of these tracks rather than just another layer of sound, bringing lyrics full of elegant witticisms to the fore. “The things that you’ve seen can’t be wiped clean but you can leave them to soak while you think,” he croons on “Tears Are the Sweetest Sauce,” punctuating life’s problems with a tempered yet somehow comforting resolution. Layer these lines over chords that change in unpredictable and intricate patterns and you have songs that are as tense as they are beautiful.
This frantic and topsy-turvy album is brought to a graceful conclusion in “Canary”. Bringing together themes of alcohol abuse, depression and disturbing visions, Stevens is saved by the love of those around him. On a song that is a beautiful hybrid of folk and psych-rock, this is the perfect vehicle with which to conclude an album full of tension and splendour.