Trust do a tolerable job of gleefully ripping off what 80s synthpop bands sound like. But they occasionally run into a weird problem where they incorporate anachronistic sounds into their palette (like the velveeta-cheesy trance synth on “Geryon,” or the house (?) drums on “Icabod”). Which would be great if I didn’t get the impression that they were trying to be faithful synthpop revivalists. Overall, the album sounds way too pristine and up-to-date for music that’s essentially one guy trying to recreate the more melodramatic side of 80s synthpop. Also, Robert Alfons, the mastermind behind Trust, sounds like he’s trying to simultaneously imitate Ian Curtis and the woman from CocoRosie, which is not a good sound for anyone.
Despite my nitpicks with how everything sounds, the album isn’t bad by any means. The best reference point for them are the incredibly Canadian 80s band Spoons; “Geryon,” the best song on this album, reminds me a lot of their song “Nova Heart.”
NOTE: Pitchfork describes Trust as coldwave, which is weird, because coldwave bands sound like Joy Division and generally don’t sound like Spoons. If you go into this expecting anything like the former, you won’t like the latter. (Arts & Crafts, arts-crafts.ca) Topher Duguay