Chairlift - Moth (2016) [TR24][OF]

Chairlift's 2012 album Something was a shiny slice of modern pop that featured Caroline Polachek's dramatic vocals running wild through a slick backdrop of synth pop and icy R&B-influenced beats provided by Patrick Wimberly. After taking time to work on a follow-up, the duo delivers an album that amplifies the pop aspects of Something and blows it out into a sometimes brilliant listening experience. While Wimberly's skill at crafting really hooky arrangements and coaxing nice sounds out of an array of synths has grown, Polachek is still the undisputed star of the show, as her swooping, sweeping vocals dance across the mix like multi-tracked imps. She comes across like she's having all kinds of fun, which transmits a level of joy to the listener that's hard to ignore. Even if said listener is inundated with shiny, R&B-based pop, as is anyone who has access to a radio or the Internet in 2016, there's something about the way Chairlift operate that helps them to stand out just enough to truly shine. There are definitely quite a few great songs, like the pulsing "Romeo," which comes with a rousing, montage-friendly chorus, and the insistently catchy, radio-ready "Moth to the Flame," which would have sounded good sung by just about anyone. Polachek's vocal gymnastics give them the little boost they need to become something special. Her playfulness and light touch can even turn the less successful songs, like the pleasantly corny "Ch-Ching," into something worth adding to a playlist. They don't spend much time on ballads; only the opening "Look Up" and the album's penultimate track, "Unfinished Business," bring the tempo and mood down. Polachek doesn't tone her vocals down much, squeaking and squealing on the latter like a baby Björk. It's a little jarring, but not too much. The album-ending "No Such Thing as Illusion," which rolls and tumbles magically like a weird mix of Arthur Russell and Michael Jackson, more than makes up for the slight misstep that precedes it. The rest of Moth works really well too, hitting a sweet spot between modern pop simplicity and mildly arty weirdness that only a few of the many practitioners of this sound can consistently hit.

~ Tim Sendra, All Music

Hailing from Brooklyn, New York (by way of Boulder, Colorado, where they originally came together in 2006), the avant-pop outfit Chairlift formed for the unusual purpose of crafting music for haunted houses. After finding that their work transcended its original purpose, bandmates Aaron Pfenning, Caroline Polachek, and Patrick Wimberly pulled up stakes and headed east, eventually settling in that most musical of locales – not to mention one always looking for new and unique ideas – New York City. Chairlift made a name for themselves during their first two years in the Big Apple, playing shows with similar up-and-comers like MGMT, Yeasayer, and Mixel Pixel while inking a contract with the independent label Kanine. Chairlift's first release on the label, a single entitled "Evident Utensil," featured a remix by the aforementioned MGMT and was a precursor to the group's debut full-length release. Issued in 2008, Does You Inspire You melded the band's space rock influences with a poppy indie aesthetic. The album also received an extra promotional boost when "Bruises" appeared in an iPod commercial. By early 2009, major labels came calling and Chairlift signed to Columbia, which re-released Does You Inspire You that April. Sophomore album Something, recorded in Brooklyn and London over the course of 18 months (and marking the recording debut of Chairlift as a duo of Polachek and Wimberly following the departure of Pfenning), arrived in January 2012, elevating the band's kaleidoscopic pop to a grander scale with assistance from producers Dan Carey and Alan Moulder. The album snuck into the Billboard charts and ended up on many "Best of 2012" lists. One fan of the album turned out to be Beyoncé, who invited Polachek and Wimberly to help collaborate on songs for what turned out to be her surprise 2013 album, Beyoncé. Early the next year, Polachek released a solo album, Arcadia, under the name Ramona Lisa for Terrible Records. She recorded the entire album on her laptop, using no instruments or external microphones. The next Chairlift album took the opposite course; the self-produced Moth was their slickest, most pop album to date. Featuring instrumental input from Quadron's Robin Hannibal, the record was issued in early 2016.

~ Chris True, All Music