Avro - Psychopathé
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Avro’s “Psychopathé” is a twisty, shadowy synth-pop exploration of the darker side of human emotion. The way in which the album mixes Avro’s expressive vocals with a musical tapestry woven out of moonlight and the darkness between the stars, alongside lyrics that delve deeply into the complexity and weight of desire and pain, speaks to experiences we all face as human beings.
As a vocalist, Avro has a distinctive sound and a profoundly expressive singing voice. There are hints of New Wave vocalists alongside a fresh and gentle feeling that I enjoy. The way he imbues his softly touching vocals with pain or desire brings nuance to his performances. As a result, the album drives its moods home with conviction and beauty.
A complex interplay of melody and harmony moves through Avro’s songs, creating atmospheres that shiver with pain and dance with delicacy. The melodies are deeply felt and compelling, while the harmonic content creates a lush, darkly intriguing backdrop. All of the choices of synth combine into a journey through tones and textures that form a fitting accompaniment to the singing and lyrical content of the album.
Lyrically, the songs are incisive portraits of humanity driven by lust, loss, love and pain. Avro has a knack for creating raw imagery through the way he brings words together, while also engaging the listener with emotional power. Each song is an exploration of the shadowy parts of ourselves and how we interact with them and confront their presence in our lives.
My Favourite Songs Analyzed
“Commencement” opens with slowly planing notes that move outward in ripples before hollow, percussive sounds tap steadily. Gruff tones expand as the darkly guiding pulse continues. A voiceover speaks of escaping society’s strictures as vibrating tones shiver and the low end rumbles. As the echoing voices fade, the track comes to an end.
As “Insomaniac” begins, tiny sounds vibrate and dense bass pulses. The sounds are spectral and trailing as jangling, harpsichord-like synth sparkles through the music and the drums pulse. Avro’s voice has an ache in its fragility, carrying a melody full of craving, while bell-like synths ring and the drums continue to throb. The underlayer is propulsive as Avro’s voice glides in velvety motion.
The harpsichord notes have a taut flash as they tremble and the steady underpinnings add guidance. In the distance, eerie sounds flicker and the drums pulsate. The percussion trembles as angular pulses move and the vocals slip with a haunting sound, grabbing hold of me with their enchanting, heartbreaking feeling.
As the chorus unfolds, Avro’s voice is tender but broken, while chiming tones flicker and rising patterns climb. Piano-like tones ring out with a tentative, nervous quality as airy sounds float past. The bass interlocks with misty notes and fragmented vocal sounds drift while the percussion pops. The voiceover creates uncomfortable feelings while the low end continues to drive.
The vocals trip through the music with touching, empty emotion while the spiraling notes spin. As the song ends, Avro captures complex, unresolved feelings.
As the song’s subject makes a “stiletto death walk” across the nightclub, our storyteller describes them as a “vicious trendsetter” who considers themselves far above everyone else. He reads the other person’s intentions and their “absence of apprehension.”
“I can’t hide in your sleeping world,” our narrator admits, urging, “Wake up, lover, I will be here.” He exists outside the song subject’s dream state and adds, “Lie still, lover, in darkness and tears.” He goes on to insist, “You know something, you know better.”
The storyteller says that if the other person condescends to him, “I’ll write you love letters,” and asks whether they can’t fight it out and “tie it together.” He adds that they dine “on his tension” as they ignore him and never mention his name. He concludes pointedly, “You know something, you vicious trendsetter, you think you’re so much better—did you get my love letter?”
“Blue Light, Hot Dreams” starts as trembling notes are cut by distorted sounds and the rebounding low end slices with sharp edges. Computerized notes swirl with tremulous, uncertain motion as the percussion begins to pulse. Avro’s voice is fragile and tenuous, exhaling with a smooth, intimate feeling.
Flat drums guide the music as a chiming synth flashes with slow radiance. The vocals are full of whispering, tentative sensations. The rhythm presses forward again as the lead singer captures me with the mood of his performance. Digitized tones flicker while Avro exhales the words and faceted notes glitter softly in the half-light as the undulating underpinnings move ahead.
Broken vocals heighten the unease as bending sounds shimmer and bursting percussion forms a strong heartbeat. Echoing noises trip through the music, unsettling and shattered. A darkly chanting voice deepens the shadowy quality while angular tones shiver in repetitive motion before arpeggios dance again. The underlayer keeps driving as the sparkling notes dissolve and the music ends.
Declaring “shake me to the other side, I’m only in it for the ride,” the narrator speaks of doing it for dissatisfaction and to see the song subject’s reaction. He talks about a “burning blister, sweet and sour,” while asking the other person to steal his song and take his power. He adds, “I cannot wait until you’re gone, when that day comes I’ll just move on.”
With the “blue light on” our storyteller awaits hot dreams. When thinking of all the places they could go, all he hears is the song subject’s “status quo.” He adds that we miss so many beautiful things while “staring into a handheld abyss.” He asks the other person not to sweat it, because he’ll come to them when they “pop and drop and push it through.”
To conclude, our storyteller declares, “break my heart and kick my ass, I’ll take my licks with style and class.”
Nervous notes tremble in a worried circle to commence “Psychopathé.” Bouncing tones reflect a softer feeling as whispering voices move and the lead singer’s sensual voice burns with fervent need. The beat is even and steady while the dark bass adds weight. Notes blaze through the music with incandescence as the vocals echo with melancholy romanticism.
As the hard-hitting drums and sawtoothed bass cut in, the lead singer’s voice drifts with thready but impassioned feeling before the chorus rises with desire. The rhythm is insistent and shadowy while the vocals hover with otherworldly, breathy emotion and the low end continues to shift. The drums become hypnotic as a crystalline tone shimmers and the lead singer draws me closer with his yearning performance as the foundations throb.
In the distance, worried notes tremble and the underlayer surges forward. The lead singer’s voice floats alone, whispering and affectionate, while night sounds move in the distance. Once again, the low end rebounds and shatters against the higher notes in studied pulsation. As the track ends, the vocals wander past.
This desire, for the narrator, is like a “silver shadow cast against a wall, a fleck of dust floating in a light beam.” He exhorts the song’s subject to dance because “it’s only fantasy.” He continues, “Dance, my love, lay your hands on me.” He says that this desire is “kisses in the dark and faces on a screen,” and that “the reel ends, the velvet curtain falls on this desire.”
Our storyteller describes himself and the song’s subject as “two moons held by gravity, two eyes speaking blasphemy,” as their two hands “conjure alchemy” and he wonders if the other person will remember him.
“Liars in Love” comes to life as reverberating, metallic notes ring out alongside wordless vocals floating openly. Glimmering tones hover on the edge of the sound as the lead singer’s tentative voice trembles. Jeweled notes shine while sharp-edged synth pulses move with a punching kick drum to create a steady pattern.
A floating, coruscating synth moves with the lead singer’s cold, deep voice as the heavy bass locks into a groovy drumline. As the vocals echo, all of the emotion within the words is captured. The chorus jumps with trumpeting notes that flare before quickly tumbling tones fall past. I enjoy the way the lead singer engages with the lyrics to evoke the mood of the song.
Quickly tumbling notes sparkle with organic delicacy before the chorus chants again, the vocalist capturing the desire within the words. Cascading tones add burnished luminosity as the underlying rhythmic pulse moves forward. A funky synth shimmies through the music with a unique sound while broadly sunlit tonal patterns spill outward and a tightly wound tone wobbles as reverent sounds in the distance illuminate the track. As the lead singer’s darkly rich voice chants, the music locks into a trance-like pulse before ending on glimmering, soft notes.
In 1987, our storyteller was “hungover for the decade.” He talks about meeting a woman who is a “spray tan hand grenade,” who came down from the “big sky” with L’air de Temps perfume. As she holds out her empty hand, “as if on cue,” she says, “let me get that for you.” He doesn’t want to stop because it feels so right. He speaks of seeing “cheap sights in seizure lights,” pointing out that luck might be “anybody tonight,” calling them liars in love.
On his seventh free drink, the narrator feels “wet lips in my ear” as he and the song’s subject run from the bar to the car, ready to get out of there. As the song concludes, he says, “Cold blood, hot sun, hazy blue and rust. She can’t drive us fast enough, we disappear in dust.”
Conclusion
This album takes the listener on a journey through the broken landscapes of the human mind, drifting past desire and being pierced by pain. The artist is an able guide on this voyage, using his emotive voice and musical ability to draw the listener deeper into the feelings that inhabit the music.
