Review Summary: More weight.
“It’s all s
hit, it’s all s
hit, it’s all s
hit,” Channy Leaneagh intones in a pitch-shifted baritone on “Summer Please,” an accurate summary for Polica’s mindset on their third record. The theme that the press materials for
United Crushers have been pushing is a dark, dreary, and defeated one, a natural direction to go for a band that has always played in the murkier ends of the electro pop pool. On the surface,
United Crushers is certainly a morose listen. It’s less immediately kinetic than 2013’s
Shulamith and not quite as dangerously sexy as 2012’s debut
Give Up the Ghost, preoccupied instead with themes of politic and socio-economic injustice (nevertheless appropriate for this election year) and an icier, edgier production style. “Wedding” tackles death-by-cop directly, if a bit clumsily; “Berlin” dances around poverty with abstract imagery and skittish drums. Yet for its ostensibly heavy message,
United Crushers is a study in contrasts. It feels like one of Polica’s lightest records musically, a varied series of elastic melodies that favors placing Leaneagh’s voice front and center rather than burying it in layers and layers of dreamy effects and their (still ridiculous) polyrhythmic drum work. “Summer Please” all but announces this dichotomy, spinning out of that sludgy intro with a sparkling, driving rhythm, mixing up a wish for warmer seasons with the regret for all the violence, domestic and otherwise, that comes with it.
The best songs here, though, are the ones that focus on the plentiful turmoil raging inside of Leaneagh rather than any external concerns. “Someway” is all syncopated sensuality, a twisted love song that is of a pair with the preceding “Lime Habit,” where an airy beat and echoing synths flit about Leaneagh’s exhausted lyrics: “I’m a loss of faith, you’re a changed belief / scored the goods for my baby / it’s enough, so we hurry to leave.” Aside from the riotous distortion coating that synth hook on “Top Coat,” the beats here are breezy and less arresting than prior records, if no less insidious. That’s because this is Leaneagh’s show. Her confidence has come far from the Auto-Tuned atmospherics of
Give Up the Ghost, and it allows her to pen some of the most affecting material of Polica’s career. The closing trifecta of “Baby Sucks” through “Lose You” is stunning stuff; the former is a nu-disco empowerment anthem, while “Kind" and “Lose You” are two sides of the same coin. "Kind" is seemingly at peace with the emotional chaos surrounding it, while "Lose You" lashes out almost violently against uncertainty and loss with a beautiful, soulful vocal performance.
At times, the more reserved choices producer/member Ryan Olson makes seem almost too timid. “Lately,” easily Polica’s most naked ballad, sabotages Leaneagh’s performance with an off-putting synth melody, while the devastatingly lonely “Fish” is forgettable at best. These songs could work – the minimalism present on “Fish” is particularly affecting with Leaneagh’s lyrics on its own – but the flow of the tracks creates a dead period in the second half of the record that persists until the uncharacteristic “Baby Sucks” storms in. Others, like the alien “Top Coat” and the claustrophobic opening of “Summer Please,” are simply misfires. In combination with the lyrics and a relentless feeling of despair,
United Crushers can come across as a draining listen, perhaps even an uncomfortable one to those accustomed to their earlier work. It takes a few listens to discern the resolve in Leaneagh’s lyrics, but it’s there: kernels of hope in a sea of s
hit.
United Crushers accomplishes its mission, for better and worse.
s
