Tusks - Dissolve

Rating:

An album made for the big screen.

The cinematic luxuries affected by Hastings-born musical mastermind Tusks, better known to family and friends as Emily Underhill, sees her debut album 'Dissolve' become a brooding selection of delicious alt-pop sounds that seek to expand your mind as they swirl intoxicatingly inside your head. Album opener ‘For You’ sets the beautifully dark scene, melding intense atmospheres with emotionally-fuelled yet tender vocals to spark up an instant fire.

Throughout the release, the warm textures surround you with ‘Last’ and the title track both proving powerful as they grasp you by the lapels to pull you in close and tell you the most personal of stories. ‘Dissolve’ - also the lead-in single to the album - is a particular highlight as it utilises familiar hallmarks to draw open the tear ducts, acting like the accompaniment to a poignant scene in a surprisingly watchable slice of Oscar bait.

Each of the ten tracks portrays a separate scene, furthering an intensely engaging narrative of twisting, must-see tales throughout - ‘Paris’ seeps with desperation and struggles while ‘Ivy’ is a stark realisation of life’s necessities and ‘Toronto’ an honest admission. Swelling highs mix with lows that leave plenty of pause for thought as you remain transfixed by this epic journey and discovery of where exactly the road ahead lies. Yet it never feels a search for the ending, just an epic adventure.

There’s never a sense that the pop sensibilities inside are going to overpower the throbbing desire to spill out every last feeling, and at no point does anything you’ll hear become even slightly inaccessible. At the heart of it all, this is an album made for the big screen; destined to flow out of story-high speakers to hordes of fans just waiting to give it a much-deserved standing ovation. Ciaran Steward