Bartees Strange is your favourite producer’s favourite producer, adding credits on Bleachers’ last album and an upcoming Lucy Dacus LP to his increasingly exciting portfolio. On his latest album, ‘
Horror’, he delves into his own history to create an album that winds beautifully through genre, light and shade, and nuanced beauty.
Broadly working chronologically through his life, Bartees Strange pays tribute to all his influences, whether that’s musical, familial, or historical. Opener ‘
Too Much’ eases you into the depths of Bartees’ mind, creating a soulful folk palette that explodes into ‘
Hit It Quit It’, which sees him create jarring moments of ominousness befitting the album’s title. The eminently 1970s-feel of the first part of the album diverts into needy indie-rock single ‘
Wants Needs’, before stepping into a dirty basement rave in deep house anthem ‘
Lovers’. By the time clawhammer country closer ‘
Backseat Banton’ fades out, Bartees has taken moments of folk-rock in ‘
Sober’, Andre 3000-esque rap in ‘
Norf Gun’, and heartbreaking RnB in ‘17’ to create an album that somehow stays unified despite the diverse breadth of sonics that he pulls from.
