LVCRFT’s yearly musical contribution to the Halloween season has evolved into a tradition listeners can rely on. It also doesn’t get much more top-tier than the creative imagination behind this project. Amanda “MNDR” Warner, an electro-pop auteur responsible for Flume’s “Like Water” and Mark Ronson’s “Bang Bang Bang”, teams with Beyonce and Rhianna collaborator Evan “Kidd” Bogart and producer/engineer/songwriter Peter Wade to constitute the artistic engine powering LVCRFT’s latest album V. You can label LVCRFT as a gimmick act if you like, but the confluence of modern musical talent can’t avoid producing substantive material.
The album’s opener “Everyday is Halloween” is an energetic romp that sets V’s standards high from the outset. It also sets down theatricality as a guiding artistic principle for LVCRFT’s new album without imitating their previous work. Keyboards, synthesizers, relentless percussion, and dazzling multi-track vocals are key elements for the first song. V’s longest cut comes early with the album’s second song. “Burnin’” is near-claustrophobic synth-driven pop with a pulsing pace. It has a light touch, however, despite the arrangement’s impressive stride. The project deserves kudos for a wide-lens treatment of the Halloween theme, incorporating material with darker atmospherics, rather than relying on supernatural tropes alone. The sultry undercurrent running through this song is especially alluring.
“Seraphina” has considerable polish as high-performance pop riffing on the Halloween theme. LVCRFT hit upon a strong chorus hook for this song, and it retains a strong theatrical edge despite jettisoning the heavier presence of vocal effects in the earlier “Burnin’”. “Scream! (For Halloween)” is, at its heart, breezy irresistible pop magic. It follows a fast clip from the outset without listeners ever feeling like LVCRFT is rushing them toward the song’s conclusion. Staccato melody lines zip past as the performance develops and the assorted low-key sound effects LVCRFT adorns the recording with decorating “Scream for Halloween” with scattered dramatic touches.
The playful romping of “Never Be Alone” strikes an incongruous note when comparing the arrangement to the song’s lyrics. It’s this sort of contrast, however, that helps carry this track to the upper echelon of the album’s songs. Vocal effects are present once again, but LVCRFT shows a keen ear for knowing how to use such tools. V ends improbably, yet delightfully, with the barrelhouse piano blues of “Fare Thee Well”. LVCRFT slathers heavy studio effects over the performance, it’s an album concoction rather than a likely live song, but nonetheless a surprising and well-turned ending for the release.
The project has made in-demand festival appearances and figures prominently in modern music each time the calendar flips over to October. Even a single listen to “Scream for Halloween” reveals that the creative minds behind it fully embrace the idea of Halloween being a time for fun and imagination let loose. It makes this single a fun and vigorous listening experience. LVCRFT’s new album V
Garth Thomas