Coast 2 Coast reviews Cristina Lake's "Toxic Woman"Hi. Hey. Hello. How are you doing? How's your summer been? Have you gotten food poisoning from Golden Corral yet? Have you lost your best friend after burying him in the sand? Have you been lost by your best friend after he buried you in the sand? Have you listened to the new Cristina Lake album? No? Well then in that case, your summer has completely sucked! If you haven't listened to it, and you're unsure about listening to the album. Here's this convenient review to hopefully change your mind about the album!
Track One: Toxic Woman
The highly anticipated album starts out with the title track and chart topper, Toxic Woman. It starts out with a heavy bass drop, a floor tom, and a heavy bass synth. Cristina begins singing, she is hypnotic and quiet as she sings the chorus but as a tom fill leads her right into the chorus, she sings with quiet power. Cristina made a great decision making this the first track of the album. A great album always has a great hook. From what I can gather, this song is about letting go of her regrets and letting the bad side of herself out for the world to see. It's a cool concept for lyrics, I like how it's not completely obvious; she hints at this using metaphors and creative verses such as "I'll smoke every last regret" which is surprisingly punk for a pop album. The song ends with a self-harmonized "Then your future ain't with me" and the song cuts out. This is going to be better than I expected it to be, definitely.
Track Two: First Kiss Lipstick
I am very found of good production, definitely. It can make a song so much better. That's why, when First Kiss Lipstick began with a pitch shifting accordion melody. I couldn't help but bump it up a couple notches volume wise. A loud piece of what I can only assume is metal begins playing on the two and four of the song as Cristina's smooth vocals kick in. She's almost whispering as she sings, it's a really cool tone; it adds a gloomy feel. Then, it goes into this neat little instrumental break with a heavy kick drum that's very heavy on my subs. This is the part where my head begins to bob up and down. The lyrics are well written, Lake has a great choice of vocabulary in her lyrics which I really like.
Track Three: Incandescent Romance
The next track starts out with a very hazy bass and synth lead. It almost reminds me of the genre "Vaporwave" where producers slow down a song from the 80's, chop up the sample, and add all sorts of reverb effects to give it this distant feeling. The song then goes into Cristina, spitting out some very creative lines, as well as a snare with delay slapped on it. It's almost like she was trying to fill this song up with lyrics and the oddness of the lyrics mattered more than the meaning, which is okay with me, I personally like it when bands ditch a deep meaning for vagueness. Before the chorus, there is a distorted sample of someone singing as Cristina' vocals come back in for the chorus. Her voice is very powerful, more powerful then we've heard from the last two tracks. This is definitely a standout track, everything falls perfectly into place in this song and I'd love to see it as a closer for live sets.
Track Four: Love When You're Ready
Love When You're Ready, follows the same psychedelic introduction suit that Incandescent Romance did. It starts out with a reversed choir sample and her hypnotic vocals. A piano kicks in as well which gives it this very gloomy feel, almost like the tranquility of driving in the rain. A distorted bass comes in and I do indeed get the image of driving down a rainy highway, which is common in my state of Oregon. Although, I wish since there is a lot of power in the instrumentals that she would bring some power as well. She sings very quietly in a lot of her songs and I feel like it's definitely her flaw, though it does fit a lot of her songs. Even if she bumped it up like one dynamic level, it'd be better. From what I can gather, the song is about finding the right partner and not just jumping on the first person you find attractive. Which I can agree with, considering most of those relationships just end in heart break. Overall, this song is a great song but it does lack a lot. Nevertheless, I'll still be bumping it next time I have to drive the highway in the rain.
Track Five: The Key
The album just gets more and more psychedelic as a hypnotic drum and bass combo hooks you right into Cristina's lyrics. There's a distorted but simple guitar riff in the background that my ears keep focusing on as well, this is a very trippy song for sure. The chorus kicks in with Cristina singing with a phaser attached to her voice as well as snapping on two and four. Her repetitiveness gets extremely trippy as all the instruments come back in. This happens as the time signature seems to change to 12/8 as her rhythm takes on a triplet feel. The time signature changes back to the common 4/4 as she sings up until an instrumental break which cuts off the song.
Track Six: One Day (Featuring Brandon Caulfield)
This song makes it clearly evident that Cristina is an expert at pathos. She sings about missing someone who is gone using gloomy lyrics and an overall depressing vibe. She sings over a very dark beat where the drums are the most obvious feature. Brandon Caulfield, a special guest in this song, also sings gloomy lyrics to match Cristina's though he sings through the point of view of Cristina's dead lover. He promises to patiently wait at the gates of heaven. In the chorus, Cristina promises that they will meet again one day. The way the two get the meaning across brings a very somber feeling in me. They executed the meaning perfectly without making it sappy and just stupid so I applaud them there.
Track Seven: Long Distance Lies
Next up is single, Long Distance Lies, a song about a long distance relationship. The song strays from her synth pop style that we've seen from ever song so far and it takes more of a surf indie direction. It reminds me of the Raveonettes and The Neighborhood sound wise. Her voice is very hypnotic and soft and it matches the song's erratic tempo changes. It really strikes me as a haunting song because of the meaning attached to it, or at least what I interpreted. She sings about the heartache of your love being a thousand miles away and a relationship like that obviously can't hold up very well so it all crashes down. As a person who as experienced this, I can relate to it even more which makes it a lot more emotional. Production wise, the drums stand out very clearly and that gives it this vinyl quality that I love. The snares are very punchy and they sound amazing with fancy speakers; try it out sometime, it'll make the song a whole lot better!
Track Eight: Addicted To Broken Hearts
The genre fluidity doesn't stop with Long Distance Lies; Addicted To Broken Hearts starts out with a distorted power pop guitar riff that signifies that this has more of a pop rock vibe. It's strange hearing this song since it's one of the only uptempo songs on the entire album, but it's definitely a nice way to shake things up and keep my attention towards the album. Cristina's vocals are a lot more poppy than the previous tracks and it has a lot more power in it as well. About halfway through one of the verses, I noticed that this also has a very strong jazz feel; it almost gives it a sleazy feel, like I want to go get drunk and buy a harem of prostitutes while listening to this song. Anyway, what I found the most interesting about the lyrics is that instead of playing the victim of a breakup role, it seems that Cristina is the one who is dumping her partner and she feels empowered by it, hence that she's addicted to broken hearts, the sound when it shatters, and the moment everything falls apart. While this isn't really a standout track and I got bored of it's simplicity, it hasn't stopped me from listening to this album and I can tell that Cristina has a lot of faith in this song.
Track Nine: Quiet Game
Reverbed guitars ring out as Quiet Game lives up to it's name, it's a rather quiet and chill song though Cristina does project a little more power into her singing. This song seems like it's a song about self-deprecation, she sings about being manipulative and ultimately losing her love. The song, despite it's sad message, has a very upbeat sound, with a tempo clocking in at 120 BPM. Though it does have a fast tempo, it's not something that we'll hear in clubs anytime soon, it's not a very dance oriented track. I feel like this song belongs more in a movie anyway; it just has that movie vibe. The song ends with Cristina hypnotically repeating the verse "The quiet game" as the song abruptly ends. Like most of the songs on here, it has great production and it's a good listen though it doesn't hold up to the beginning tracks.
Track Ten: Against A Tide Rushing In
Annnnnd things just got trippy again! Against a Tide Rushing In starts out with complex self harmonies up until simple synth and drums join the vocals. It reminds me of something you'd hear from Alt-J or Fleet Foxes because of that rainy day in nature vibe that it projects. This one utilizes one of my favorite drum samples, the 808 clap, this can be heard in trap and synth pop and I can't help but amp up bonus points to any song that uses it. The song then cuts into a chorus with a punchy synth leading guiding us into a swelling "Ahh" as she begins singing the next verse. The thing that sticks out a lot to me is that the bassline is very simple but at the same time, very powerful; as they say, simplicity is felicity. They don't actually say that, I think it's just me. Shut up, ADD. I have a review to finish! As the song concludes with the chorus dying out with a drum fill, I can't help but feel the necessity to go back and replay this song. I genuinely enjoyed it.
Track Twelve: Stay Young
After Against a Tide, a seemingly non existent track eleven is skipped over with Cristina's vocals saying "We turned twenty-one" with a delay slapped on it. An atmospheric piano lead drives us into a bass heavy drum beat with Cristina's vocals. She projects a Phantogram vibe as she sings about staying young and making mistakes. The buildup to the chorus begins with a deep four on the floor bass drum which sweeps into a heavy house synth lead. I begin subconsciously bobbing my head to this hypnotic house lead. They stop as she begins singing again. The skeleton of the song is pretty basic, it just repeats itself pretty much. However, this doesn't get boring, this is a very interesting song. Even when the skeleton repeats, there's something new to differentiate the track, which is a good move on Cristina's part. I can see how this song could be skipped over because of its repetitiveness so it's good that there's subtle change in it.
Track Thirteen: Live Myself To Death
An acoustic guitar riff throws us out of the synth pop vibe and into more of an indie feel. Cristina's reverbed lyrics give us a bittersweet vibe as a guitar strums on every beat one. Very soft bass drums begin playing to mask the guitar on beat one. Then, it evolves into a tight drum beat as Cristina sings in an operatic manor. It then mimics the beginning while still giving us a dose of hypnotic and woeful singing from Cristina. The bridge comes in and it's a common pop bridge where a synth pad and vocals fill your ears. Her voice is powerful but it feels like it holds back a little bit. She repeats the chorus using a similar dynamic. Towards the end, the chorus is harmonized with male vocals from an anonymous singer. It definitely fills up a tonal void this song has. The song ends with a bittersweet guitar riff slowing down as it fades out. There's a lot of subtle things wrong with this song, such as Cristina's tendency to go under dynamically, it's a bigger deal in this song because of it's minimalistic feel, she needs more vocal power to fill up a void. Other than that, this song radiates a very nostalgic feeling, almost like a feeling of realizing you wasted the best of your youth on partying and doing illegal shit. Which is something I feel the best of us will encounter later in life.
Track Fourteen: The Beat Inside
As the album draws nearer and nearer to its day of reckoning, we are greeted with a similar nostalgic vibe that Live Myself to Death gave us only more of a pop feel and less of that surf rock, do a ton of coke, vibe. She starts out with a deeper voice than usual with a four on the floor kick drum throbbing in the background. She has that same whisper quality in here voice but it fits more in this song. This song feels a little bit repetitive as the chorus repeats several times and there's not very much differentiation until the bridge where she begins to harmonize with herself in a higher pitch but that quickly goes away as the same rave chorus continues. This song definitely isn't the selling point of the album. It feels like she gave up a little bit on writing lyrics.
Track Fifteen: Everything Glitters
Here we are, track fifteen, we're almost done. A common house fade in begins as we're given a cool synth lead into Cristina's vocals. This song seems to be in a non traditional pop tempo of 100 bpm, which is a great mix up from the common 130 that we're used to in this album. Also, good news, Cristina displays a lot of power in these opening lines. I'm very proud to hear power coming out of her. Her vocals are complimented by a heavy bass drum playing four on the floor. An 808 snare leads us into the chorus which utilizes a glitchy sampled lead. This is one of the more club oriented tracks on the album. I can definitely see a crowd of people grinding on each other to this track. Even the lyrics bring on a party vibe as she talks about inhibitions wearing thin. While I'm generally not a fan of club tracks, this one is genuinely a grooving track and I could actually see myself listening to it. At lot more went into it than your standard issue club banger and I applaud Cristina for that. For the entire album, while she's followed the spine of pop music, she hasn't stuck onto clichés at all. It can be hard for a pop artist to stay true to what they want, it's a consumer demand oriented genre, they put out what the masses want to hear and most of the time it's just club bangers. So give a hand to Cristina for being a chart topping artist with her own style.
Track Sixteen: Blinded by Weakness
A good closer is very important to me so hearing the abstract synth work in this closing track really sparked up some hope for me. The song has a tribal feel which I love. I absolutely love it when electronic utilizes a hypnotic conga beat, it just makes the song more likable to me. She uses low-fi fuzz vocals to project her power into our ears as she begins singing. She wants to display a message about how we all go through emotional pain, one way or another. There is absolutely no way of avoiding it, no matter how hard we try. It is also a reflection of herself when she was stuck in that emotional rut. She only subtly hinted at feeling happier in this record and that is a great move. Too much happiness makes me uncomfortable, there should at least be some form of neutrality in your music over one emotion and she finds that balance between happy and sad. I absolutely love how she takes more of the tribal feel mixed with classic prog rock synths. It makes a very unique sound, which got me to bump this song a few notches. There's also an organ, giving this more of a rastafarian feel though it's projected as indie which is unique because she's only subtly experimenting with new sounds and genres.
Overall:
This album started out amazing, then in the middle grew mediocre but rocked again at the end. It definitely had a great hook in to the audience but it should have done more in the middle to hold up my attention. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this album and would recommend this to anyone looking for a darker side of synth pop music and overall just something unique. She utilizes her own style and in her future releases, she really needs to stick with that. The biggest problem I had with this album is that she doesn't come out of her shell power wise. She has a lot of potential with these tracks that she isn't using because her vocals are just a tad too quiet on almost every song. Will there are parts that make it better, she should really focus on bumping up her power next time she goes to write a song.
Standout tracks: Toxic Woman, First Kiss Lipstick, Incandescent Romance, Love Me When You're Ready, The Key, A Tide Rushing In, Live Myself To Death, and Blinded By Weakness
Rating:
9/10