Pop is a very broad spectrum. For every, glitter-clad, upbeat, dance-routine, Day-glo, pop-tart dreaming of fame, fortune and their own range of cosmetics, there are twice as many people doing something much more interesting within its wide-ranging borders. Artists such as Schmiddo for one. He takes a lo-fi melancholic approach, the title alone tells you much of what you need to know about what is found within, but this isn’t some sort of sonic and overly earnest pity-party, or if it is, the reason that you will return to the album time and time again is for its more creative and imaginative moments.
It is an album forged from fairly restrained dance floor beats, from the skittering, trap-tropes of Leave Me on My Own to the chilled, after hours vibe of Wrap My Words All Around You, and lo-fi electronic grace. The songs often drift in and out of consciousness, tethered for a while by the solidity of the beat, often with the feeling that if it wasn’t for such a device the whole album would sail off on prevailing sonic winds to be torn apart on its eddies and distributed to the four corners of the word…if that doesn’t make me sound like a flat-earth advocate.
Reasons To Never Love Again is always melancholic but never miserable…okay, sometimes miserable, sad and reflective rather than reaching for the razor blades….again, mostly. It sits between pop and dance, human emotion and electronic fabrication, loss and a search for redemption, or at least closure. If you ever doubted that digital music could tug heart-strings as easily as more traditional instrumentation….Exhibit A : Reasons To Never Love Again. I rest my case.
