(2023) Bernice - Cruisin'

Review:
Bernice won widespread acclaim -- including a place on the Polaris Prize longlist -- with Eau de Bonjourno, an album that brilliantly expressed the relationships between people and the world around them with surprising sounds and intimate songwriting. On Cruisin', singer/songwriter Robin Dann and company reflect on how the need for communion only grows stronger in difficult times. Written and recorded during the COVID-19 global pandemic (with two of Bernice's members, Dan Fortin and Felicia Williams, contributing remotely), the group's fourth album sprang from missives to the people they missed the most. Bernice are as unmoored on Cruisin' as they were connected on Eau de Bonjourno. Dann wonders, "Where did my people go?/Are they playing a secret show?" on "Underneath My Toe"'s fusion of soft rock and jazz; on the lingering instrumental "7," the whole band contributes to the feeling of not-so-splendid isolation. Dann's images of the album's shrunken-down world are typically detailed and lively. Coyotes, trees, and even items of clothing play major roles; on "Yoohoo," she confides in her favorite sweater over clicking and clanking percussion. Cruisin''s hallucinatory sounds ably illustrate how memories and people can grow and shrink in the mind's eye and how thoughts drift in isolation. Without warning, songs slip and slide into different melodies, keys, and tempos, or dissolve into fragments. At times, Bernice use this sense of impermanence strikingly: It gives a mercurial sweetness to the tender acoustic sketch "Barbara, It's Your Tree" and an underlying tension to "Always a Lover," a portrait of a tenuous relationship with a "minimum man" that's barely held together by guitar harmonics and wobbling synths. Resembling a melted '80s power ballad, "Are You Breathing" brings the album's smooth and disorienting extremes together with heartfelt results, as Dann asks, "How can I puff up your halo?" while shiny keyboards and gated drums tumble around her. Nearly as often, however, this approach is distracting instead of expressive. Found sounds and cartoonish sound effects overshadow the actual music on "Second Judy," as do the discordant vocals and piano jammed into "Dog Needs Love." Despite Cruisin''s experimental bent, the album's best song is the most straightforward: "Begin Again"'s understated expression of surviving everyday monotony is a flawless example of how eloquently Bernice capture the subtlest emotions. Though it's as vivid and creative as the group's best work, unfortunately Cruisin' isn't as consistent. Connecting with Bernice might be more difficult this time around, but there are some rewarding moments for those willing to try. — allmusic

Track List:
01 - Entrance Music
02 - Second Judy
03 - Underneath My Toe
04 - Little miss timmy
05 - Barbara, It's Your Tree
06 - Begin Again
07 - Always a Lover
08 - To Live On Carrots
09 - I am Brave
10 - Dog Needs Love
11 - Yoohoo
12 - Are You Breathing
13 - No Effort to Exist
14 - Little Guy
15 - 7


Media Report:
Genre: art pop, indie-pop
Country: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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