by Oliver
on March 13, 2023
in Album
glime aka Molly Keck aka Molly Marlette aka Glüme Viola Harlow leaves two years following their debut The Internet by an impressively well-known backing cast as Main Character put on a pedestal.
The lady behind it with her Alt Synth and Dream Pop is pretty perfect Italians do it Better appropriate name glime also operates under the title Walmart Marilynto serve up a cinematographic collage of vintage Hollywood dreams, nostalgic eclecticism and contemporary yearning. Sometimes, but only in the really weakest passages of Main Character, one has to think of a kind of Lana ordered on Wish. Which of course alone is far too inappropriate because Main Character Although many trademarks of the cult figure of Lizzy Grant in the universe of the dissolved Chromatics copied, the second work of glime but (almost) never really bad in itself.
It is much more likely that the somewhat too long 50 minutes fail on the one hand due to the raised ambitions (which, since the debut, have of course also been supported by the prominent features – STRFKR, Of MontrealRufus Wainwright, Sean Ono Lennon and of course Johnny Jewel once more – and increased expectations have also grown) and on the other hand the basic substance of the songwriting: weakening especially in the middle part Main Character unnerving when the fleet Dangerous Blue anachronistically jogging remains too noncommittal, since the ethereal bittersweet melody is limited by the one-dimensional beat corset, Wedding Cake Shop comes up with a penetrating, annoyingly sedative narrative refrain, or himself Flicker Flicker in an accident of grime pastiche and struggling trap club, just as unpleasantly concerned as quickly forgotten, at the sole unnecessary failure of the record.
Also the passage around Garden of Allah (almost a thin one Depeche Mode-splashing), the more contemplative clicking and subtly booming in the elegy Heaven and above all the relatively uninspired but solid 0815 piece, contrary to its title Queen of LA does not get beyond the musically hardly lasting impression left mediocrity, which without the presence of glime probably would have cycled completely under the attention radar anyway.
However, it is also true that this perception unfavorably thrives on the fact that the opening of the record (with the catchy flagship Child Actorto which euphoric Chvrches pumping Do Me a Favor as well as the more relaxed sprinkling one Brittany) succeeds very finely and occasionally shows the further course and at the end the frame is atmospherically closed: the outstanding title track is a potentially magical Lana ballad, rudimentarily large and impressive, like an old memory that has always been there and I can’t get it out of my head, with Rufus Wainwright himself committing the duet in front of an orchestral background, even if the number, unfortunately, blinded by his arrangements, doesn’t reach a real climax – but later there is a corresponding overture reverberation of the orchestra, before the progressive flourishing Female Role Model as a meandering cluster fuck is a bit exemplary for the gap between potential and end result. The existence Intermission as a dreaming interlude as well as that which shows a conciliatory redundancy Child Actor (Reprise) Trying to imitate such a non-existent suspense is also really honorable. Still feels Main Character in the end a bit like a B-movie showing a lot of poise with the dignity of an A-league longing.
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