The new record from Cross Record is called Cross Record. And by going the self-titled route, Emily Cross seems to be using the release, out on Friday via Ba Da Bing Records, as a sort of new start to her already-successful career. The album is, if not a new direction, a more concise distillation of the arty post-punk found on the last Cross Record record back in 2016.
If something like "Face Smashed, Drooling" is the sort of pop music one might find in the dreams of David Lynch, the lighter "I Release You" is a bit better, the simplification of the kind of thing found on that last Weyes Blood album. Emily Cross has a fantastic voice, admittedly, and it's served very well by the sonic constructions here on Cross Record, especially the starkly set "Sing the Song", a rather breathtaking number. Elsewhere, "Hollow Garden" adds in a faint percolating backing track, to anchor the song in another context, and one outside the rather severe settings of lots of the arrangements on Cross Record. The sort of thing that should appeal to fans of Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush, Cross Record should succeed as well for any attentive listener who is willing to sink into the richly evocative world created by Cross as she croons across the sides of this record.
Cross Record is out on Friday via Ba Da Bing Records.
More details on Cross Record via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Jinni J.]