Celestial harmonies, misty swaths, ethereal folk, emo-ambient: with “Heavenly Body: If I’m the Bottle You’re the Message,” the American artist once again rises to a rare level of intensity.
Since Powders was released three years ago, we currently ignore the twists and meetings (FKA Twigs, Shygirl) that prompted Eartheater not to publish the originally planned follow-up (Aftermath). We want to remember only the happy ending: this new album, as free as ever, as enchanting as ever, with those omnipresent and obsessive choirs that give the sensation of secretly listening to a ritual one ought not to have witnessed.
There is indeed something deeply personal in these eleven tracks, written after the birth of her daughter, that reveals none of the multiple questions raised by pregnancy: what does it mean to carry a human being? How does one reclaim her body? What about sexuality when you are pregnant?
A mysterious work with melodies that are almost unreal
Heavenly Body: If I’m the Bottle You’re the Message thankfully resembles less a guide for new parents than a mysterious work, where daily misfortunes and hopes seem to dissolve: only the images suggested by these almost unreal melodies matter, melodies that could have emerged from another time if they weren’t so infused with contemporary intentions.
Here, a new wave with club accents (Favorite); there, a lullaby of delicate tenderness shared with Oklou (Fast Asleep); elsewhere, electronic swaths, sometimes serving a grand trip-hop (Practical Amnesia), sometimes conceived to accompany liturgical chants (Wasp in the Fig). This art of balance, Eartheater owes in part to David Sitek, brought in to replace Sega Bodega as co-producer, tasked with highlighting these harmonies of voices that comfort, enchant, and poetize the world.
Since the farm of her childhood, which she repurchased after two decades of exile, the American has thus not lost her ability to place emotion at the center of everything. Beyond experiments, what matters is the sense of proximity, the moods felt between each note, the raw and sophisticated capture of intimate moments, as if motherhood were a new aesthetic El Dorado to explore. Listening to Nova, a gentle lullaby conceived with Nosaj Thing and named after her daughter’s name, this approach becomes a moment of pure beauty, peaceful and evanescent.
Heavenly Body: If I’m the Bottle You’re the Message (Chemical X/Mad Decent/Because). Out on July 14. Touring at the Trianon, Paris, on August 30.
