Warpaint – 'Exquisite Corpse EP' review
An EP of two halves, this. At its best, the Los Angeles trio’s debut release is lush, dreamy and impressively accomplished melancholia; when it’s not, however, the results feel drab and thrown together. The good comes first: opener Stars is all sparse guitars, cathedral drums and spook, anchored by sleepily sexy three-part female harmonies. It recalls Parachutes-era Coldplay, with more guts and less careerism. Then Sonic Youth and Bat For Lashes mingle with Jeff Buckley on Elephants, leaving a kind of fuzzy funk just as splendid, but after that the EP crashes. A trio of crass jams follow, culminating in Beetles, a terrible Blondie rip-off, and although the final track saves some face, it’s not enough. There are glimmers of genius here, but over the course of six songs those shafts of light only shine so bright.
6/10
