by Daniel Kussy
Raphaelle Standell-Preston cries aloud a prolonged “Oh My God” to introduce the space-y free-flowing “Left/Right.” A sudden blink in lyrical flow once “illuminated on the mountain top: Mont Royal” spills like a panic of spacial hyper-awareness as the strings wash over the synth floor, the acknowledgement of footsteps which the song title points to. A track with such spontaneity feeds into a theme within Euphoric Recall; the abandonment of strategy, burning away the structures and embracing the impulses, and welcoming imperfections. A move seemingly necessary to exercise the pandemic demons many artists endured, Euphoric Recall follows 2020’s “Shadow Offering,” one of many albums created with hopes of support in the form of performances and subsequent touring that got washed out in the pandemic noise. In the demand for patience and space, this album is also an urgency for movement, injected from a lingering groove-based pulse from Standell-Prestons’ fluid-motion side project Blue Hawaii.
The arpeggiated melody of “Retriever” is relaxed and weightless in its atmospheric exploration as the nearly 10-minute track expands. The percussion breaks nearly halfway, draws down the sun, and as another melody sinks in, a starry blanket of voices envelope the listener into stillness, and as the melody oscillates into the closer “Euphoric Recall,” the vocal performances of Standell-Preston submerge the listener until the melody begins to fade away.
For fans of: Toro Y Moi, Purity Ring, Eurythmics