By Martin Castro (The Cascade) – Email
The debut record of Laura Sauvage — the solo project of Vivianne Roy, one third of the folk trio Les Hay Babies — takes its lessons from the beach rock of the ‘60s, but incorporates heavier elements as well. “Rubberskin,” the first track on the record, sounds like it came out of a movie scene involving slowly moving, panning shots of hippies doing recreational drugs interspersed with shots of a car chase, ending in a crash. Reverb is applied to pretty much everything on the track except the drum kit, giving it perhaps too much room to move about. And Roy’s voice itself ends up getting kind of drowned out in the messiness of the track, despite its catchiness.
“Cyanide Breath Mint” is more grounded, Roy’s voice is ridiculously reminiscent of Metric’s Emily Haines, and the track does its job well, bringing down the leftover energy from “Rubberskin” to a more grounded, more meditative space.
Most of the other tracks on the record seem to follow either the example of “Rubberskin” or “Cyanide Breath Mint”: either energetic or lethargic.
“Have You Heard The Good News?” is one of the best tracks on the record, because although Roy’s delivery isn’t particularly emphatic (it’s kind of lackluster), the track’s main guitar riff works really well in tandem with her delivery.
Unfortunately, “Jesus Wants to Be My Buddy” doesn’t do any of the things “Have You Heard The Good News?” does well, and instead reverts back to most of the failures of the record’s first two tracks. Its only saving grace comes by way of a relaxed, Mac Demarco-esque guitar solo that ties the track together with a neat little bow at the end.
If anything, the tracks on the record, simply because of the way that they rely on reverb and space to appear as if they’re less bare-bones than they really are, end up seeming as if they’re too short. We’re never really satisfied. And what’s weirder is that this is a fault that’s quite easily remedied: all you’ve got to do is take the reverb away and you’re left with a punchy, sweet, albeit short track.
I could imagine “Fucker Stole My Phone,” one of the more high-energy tracks on the record, being my favourite if it weren’t for this same problem.
“I.D.W.Y.S.” is a bit more palatable given its lack of reverb. We can actually hear her voice through the verses, and it’s a lot more charismatic than having a shapeless mass of sound pushed at you.
Extraordinormal would be a great throwback to early rock if it weren’t for the amount of murkiness it makes the listener wade through. As it stands, Extraordinormal is more of a lesson on the failings of using reverb to approximate the past.
