Bleep

Self described as “the slowcore ambient rec of the year”, claire rousay’s latest full length album sentiment pivots to pop while marking her Thrill Jockey debut. Having moved from drumming in bands to improvised percussion to abstract drones and compositions, rousay is no stranger to left turns; sentiment presents yet another one as she fuses her “emo ambient” sound design with accessible songwriting reaching back to her emo rock origins.

sentiment is an ode to bedroom pop, as expressed by the cover photo visualising the private spaces that witness big, real emotions, communicated through gentle and hushed tones. ‘4pm’ opens with burning honesty: spoken word lifted from deeply personal phone notes, digital diary pages set alight by jackhammering drones, then soothed by seas of strings and guitar plucks. ‘head’ continues in that mood, pacing out emo tinged post rock with rousay’s vocals crooning over intimate anxieties.

Natural soundscapes and candid field recordings frame the album, with idyllic piano and guitar passages evoking cinematic catharsis alongside the equally emotional and revealing songs. rousay’s penchant for compositional narratives as well as her attention to sonic detail show in tracks like ‘asking for it’, a snapshot of experimentation where garbled glitches swish from side to side and a rumbling wash stampedes in and out. A tender dance between violin and cello on ‘iii’ provides breathing space in between the heavier lyrical cuts, with the slow burning “laconic tempo” of ‘it could be anything’ driving lurching bass notes into potent arrangements, and the strength of strums wading through gushing backgrounds on ‘please 5 more minutes’.

sentiment is an audio diary documenting claire rousay’s newfound, introspective pop direction.