Porches – The House (Domino)
New York-based songwriter Aaron Maine is an auteur driven by his own seclusion. Channeling the delicate chords of new wave and funk, Porches weave songs rooted in impulses that evoke natural responses. Thrust by an impetus of its own, The House, though hollowed-out in sound, contains a gamut of realized musical ideas. The album locks into grooves that are somehow catchier and more instantaneous than Maine’s debut breakout, Pool. That album pondered the state of the human condition through anxiety-ridden imagery, and The House is an album very much informed by that tension. It constructs heart-wrenching melodies that pull at the very seams of human emotion. Though not entirely halting in its structure, The House lays down some of Maine’s most gripping melodic excursions. The album’s best track, “Now the Water,” is propelled by an icy beat that narrates the social and psychological costs of isolation. The album sparks with a wilting flame, familiar to digest but not enough to get the blood flowing.
Rating: 8.1/10
Trial Track: “Now The Water”