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I often judge an album, particularly a dance or a pop album, by how well I can cook to it. This may sound like a weird standard, but just bear with me. See, much like zoning out to my favorite music, cooking relaxes me. And I know I’ll love an album if it lets me hit my groove in the kitchen– chopping, sautéing, slicing, stirring, tasting– cooking becomes this rhythmic dance that I crave at the end of my day.
The Whip’s new album, “Wired Together”, has the right formula to be great in the kitchen so I threw it on and started making an onion tart for dinner. Essentially, when an album relies heavily on beats, catchiness, and repetition, I want to know one thing: can I move to it. I just so happen to do most of my moving in the kitchen. What can I say? Ibiza’s now closed for the season, so my options are pretty limited.
My kitchen groove was totally thrown off by this entire album. I’d throw the salt in at the wrong moments. My whisking felt off beat. Sautéing the onions just didn’t feel the same. I almost turned the album off in the middle of my cooking, as I found the pace so downright distracting. So I honestly felt relieved when the music ended, so I could finish off the tart and put together a salad in peace.
What I love about electronic music is its ability to create continuity in an album. Even when songs assert their individuality, usually through punctuated beats or a new electronic instrument foregrounding the sound, you understand the album as a singular, cohesive piece of work. But The Whip’s “Wired Together” doesn’t have continuity; it has sameness. The album eventually picks up right at its end, finishing stronger than it began with “Best Friend” and “Slow Down”, but this isn’t enough to make up for the mediocrity of the first half of the album.
“Wired Together” ostensibly claims to make The Whip’s earlier electronic sound digestible to the pop enthusiast. At least, that’s what I garnered from their press release, which labeled The Whip’s work as electronic dance, alternative rock friendly, and pop leaning– all while referring to the album as a “new wave” of sound, a not so subtle subliminal message linking The Whip to another Manchester based electronic sound. You know what this press release is? A typological shitshow.
And that’s the problem. Pop albums are a collection of singles, not a continuous, flowing album. The goals of electronic music and pop in “Wired Together” are at odds with one another. Add to that the confusion of trying to make electronic dance for the alternative rock crowd as well as the pop crowd, all while trying to maintain a musical legacy through a tenuous geographic connection, and it’s little wonder that “Wired Together” sounds muddled and ultimately unsatisfactory to every demographic: there aren’t enough stand out tracks for a pop album, and there’s not enough flow for an electronic album.
Every track is identical but they all clash, like a closet full of the same shirt bought in different colors. Good thing New Order are putting on a few live shows in the coming weeks, because The Whip clearly can’t be trusted with their legacy much longer. Stream “Wired Together” via the music tab on the band’s website, or below.
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