It’s been a while, but Warpaint finally return to deliver their inimitable, hazy charm just in time for the summer.
Six long years have passed since Warpaint last gently frazzled minds on Heads Up and, as we know, much has changed in the world since 2016. Fortunately, little has changed in their musical world, even if their cerebral brand of alternative rock does sound synonymous with those halcyon days.
In real life, the members of the group have grown as they must: drummer Stella Mozgawa has returned to live in her native Australia while bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg relocated to Utah, while guitarist/vocalists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman reside in Joshua Tree and Los Angeles respectively. Meanwhile, they’ve undertaken various solo projects and collaborations with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett.
To return to their day job must have been logistically difficult, but they did so revitalised: Champion gently rattles and fizzles as the guitars interact intricately, finding fleeting moments of optimism in, ‘being a champion to one’s self and for others’.
While the soothing vocals are familiar, it also heralds a new, trip-hop direction in the snappy percussion and foggy production, which is followed up on the stuttering, itchy Hips, underpinned by a menacing threat: ‘Don’t fuck with her’.
In contrast, another recent cut from the album, Stevie, is dreamy and slinky with an under-stated sexiness and a standout line (which works better in song than in print): ‘You are one freaky mother.’
Hard To Tell You is equally sultry but with more involved vocals than there once was, detailing the pain of an amicable break-up, while the moody ballad Trouble is a Big Song in intent if not delivery, the e-piano perpetually threatening to lift-off but opting not to do so, giving the delicious (as ever) vocal harmonies the space to shine.
In contrast, Proof – with uttered, echoing vocals – slowly struts as if inside a dream while having a disgruntled confidence that gives their sonic collaging a more determined edge.
The spacey Like Sweetness is the culmination of the band’s strengths; Lindberg and Mozgawa synchronise perfectly on percussion as Kokal and Wayman provide chiming, ethereal guitars. The four members reportedly recorded their tracks separately then built them up layer by layer, but here their natural intuition is so refined that it’s impossible to discern.
Altar fuses the sparseness of The xx with the glitching manner of hip-hop, and it comes as little surprise to learn that Sam Petts-Davies, a regular collaborator with Frank Ocean, adds his own sonic sheen to the album, but it’s most evident here.
The sedate Melting (do we detect some steel drums?) builds musically while becoming instructional as the protagonist accepts their need to move on from bad habits and accept love, but things end on a witty note. Send Nudes is as cheeky and direct as the title would suggest, being both laid back and desiring, with layered synths merging well with acoustic guitars.
Without compromising their trademark spacious sound, albeit with the muffled psychedelia toned down to make way for cleaner beats, on Radiate Like This Warpaint have successfully evolved while offering hope (see the title) to a confused world.
A welcome return.