Had to write a quick review. This is about as concise as I can be at the moment.
There aren’t words in the English (or probably any other) language to properly communicate my feelings about Miss Grit’s debut album,
Follow the Cyborg. The monicker of Margaret Sohn, who studied music technology and engineering at NYU, it follows in the footsteps of their first two EPs. Like those releases,
Follow the Cyborg is self-produced and Sohn’s writing process of building songs around a textural genesis is apparent. Their trademark spiky guitars and delicate vocals are joined by an array of electronic elements befitting the album’s subject. While touchstones of St. Vincent’s influence are evident,
Follow the Cyborg is a unique concoction whose extraordinary execution makes it easily my favorite album of the decade so far, and perhaps much more.
There is a beautiful attention to detail that fuses the album sonically and thematically. The production emphasises the part-human, part-machine nature of the cyborg character. The humanity comes through with Sohn’s gorgeously layered vocals and moments of blissful serenity. The machinery shrines through the mechanical pulse of textured electronics and abrupt bursts of fuzzed out technicolor guitar. Many songs juxtapose these elements to great effect, such as the opener “Perfect Blue” and penultimate track “The End” beginning with tranquil beauty before igniting into jagged pyrotechnics, while “Like You” and “Lain (Phone Clone)” do the reverse, starting with mechanized cool and subsequently giving way to visceral guitar-streaked choruses. There are so many beautiful touches, like the gradual rise of volume in the 16th notes on the title track and the way they give way to twinned saxophones and then an eruption of guitars, the nostalgia-soaked humming that closes some of the verses in “Nothing’s Wrong”, the barbed bass solo in “Like You”, the rhythm and minimalism that fuels “사이보그를 따라와” into awestruck wonder, and so many more. From a pure sonic perspective, there is a veritable buffet of delights.
Thematically,
Follow the Cyborg draws inspiration from various other sources such as the film
Ex Machina, the anime
Lain, and the essay
A Cyborg Manifesto. It is to the album’s credit that despite being unfamiliar with these reference points, I still am able to follow the narrative. The first 2 tracks chronicle Sohn’s cyborg character confronting their creator, while tracks 3-7 detail their perception of the dual beauty and torment of human society, culminating with the epic three-part centerpiece of “Buffering”, “Follow the Cyborg”, and “사이보그를 따라와” shaking off the shackles of their creation to forge an independent path. The final 3 tracks are emotionally charged reflections of their steps forward, and away from the past, earning the pathos that the closer “Syncing” doles out with such gut-wrenching splendor. It is a coming-of-identity story for someone who doesn’t fit in disguised through a coming-of-age narrative arc.
Needless to say, I am completely blown away and feel so grateful to exist at the same time as this album. It’s the first album that has made me cry on first listen since
The Bride by Bat for Lashes in 2016. In fact, listening to it made me marvel at such fundamental things as having limbs, walking, breathing, existing, and perceiving the world around me. Its vibrant and assured embrace of otherness makes for a very powerful experience that packs so much into its 35 minute runtime.