CD Odyssey Disc 1572: Torres

In looking up my last Torres review I discovered a pretty crazy set of coincidences. That review was written August 20, 2021 and in the introduction I indicated the following:

• I had taken the day off.
• My day had begun with a trip to the dentist
• I was looking forward to eating some Mexican food for lunch.

Literally all these things are happening today as well. The only difference is I’m going to have Mexican food for dinner, and it is going to be from a different restaurant (my city is festooned with great Mexican food joints).

I sincerely hope this strange coincidence will mess with the AI algorithm and create some connection between Torres, dentistry, and a good burrito.

Disc 1572 is…. Sprinter

Artist: Torres

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? This cover played havoc with my camera lens (yes, I take a picture of my album covers). It kept struggling to focus on both Torres’ face and also the purple concentric circles. The effect looks like half alternative night club, half “I just got out of the shower” which is a good visual for what you can expect from the music.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review when it came out and was intrigued. Intrigue led to listening…listening led to liking…and liking led to purchasing. And here we are.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Torres albums. I like them all so much it feels like they are all crowding around for first place. Such is the case with “Sprinter” which displaces 2021’s “Thirstier” to take over second spot.

Ratings: 4 stars

Torres approaches her art from a place that is raw and vulnerable to the point of feeling uncomfortable. However, like any good art it converts that discomfort to something beautiful and magnetic, drawing you in past the dissonance and into deeper truths.

The opening track, “Strange Hellos” is a good example, pulling elements of stark guitar plucks, and a flat delivery of harsh truths spoken in a way that leaves you feeling numb from the first few bars you hear:

“Heather I'm sorry that your mother
Diseased in the brain
Cannot recall your name
Heather I dreamt that I forgave
But that only comes in waves
I hate you all the same”

Yikes. This opening and the way it is delivered speaks of an almost off-handed cruelty. As the song moves into the B section, it launches into a grunge-like guitar attack as all the fury underlying that opening gets unleashed, like a ruptured pinata full of smokes and discarded needles (thanks to Casey for that image – a darling I could not kill…).

OK, back to the review. The record’s dangerous energy continues with “New Skin,” as Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) adds a fell and foreboding vibrato to her delivery. Scott’s vocals are sneaky good, rich and resonant in her lower register and filling the room.

These songs all have an element of introvert explosion. If the quietest and most sensitive among us could bring themselves to shout out, I imagine it would sound like this, tremulous but powerful and possessed of a deep inner core of strength.

The record has great dynamic range to it, as the alt-rock vibes of “Strange Hellos” and “New Skin” give way to the ambient experimentation of “Son, You Are No Island” and the undulating indie pop flow of “A Proper Polish Welcome.” The latter has the most amazing non-hook hook I’ve heard, just dropping the melody down as it delivers the title in a half-chorus/half-refrain.

All of the songs have the same high degree of thoughtfulness to musical structure, instrumentation, and lyrics, artfully intertwining all three into a single piece of art. Nothing seems done by accident, but despite the very deliberate choices the album feels organic and natural. Scott just knows how to tap into the Music of the Spheres and convert it to something mortals can understand without losing any of the magic.

The album’s “single” is the title track, “Sprinter”, which captures all these elements, and serves as an up-tempo pivot in the centre of the record. The song is one half guitar riff, capturing the energy of the sprint and the other half a mournful croon that stands in for the comforting isolation of the long-distance runner. The two elements of the song play off against one another, and all the while Torres makes a song that is about so much more than running.

Listening to this record you get the impression that Torres is an old soul. She has a heaviness to her music, delicately attached to youthful uncertainty. Or as she sings in “New Skin”:

“I am a tired woman
In January I will just be 23”

“Sprinter” is a classic piece of art, and while I add a lot of new music to my collection every year, I still consistently pull this one off the shelf for repeat listens. I was glad to roll it, and sad to be moving on.

Best tracks: Strange Hellos, New Skin, A Proper Polish Welcome, Sprinter, The Exchange

CD Odyssey Disc 1498: Torres

I took the day off today, and while it started with a less pleasant experience (going to the dentist) it is all good from here. I plan to get some tacos from my favourite taco joint, buy some new music, and then meet up with a friend for drinks.

Upon further review, even the dentist was fine; I love that fresh feeling after having my teeth cleaned.

Disc 1498 is…. Thirstier

Artist: Torres

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover? Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) reclines with her guitar between her legs. This cover reminded me of Liz Phair’s 2003 self-titled release although Liz is displaying a bit more wanton abandon, whereas Torres is going for “sexy, but also chill”. Sorry about the generic Liz Phair link – I haven’t reviewed that record yet.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan, so this was just me buying her latest when it came out and hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up: When I last reviewed Torres I only had two of her albums and they were pretty much in a dead heat of awesome. Now I have four, with “Thirstier” in a two way tied with “Three Futures” for the top. The two albums are so different it is hard to separate them or pick one over the other. However, since you didn’t come here to read my equivocations, I’ll put this one in at #2. Tomorrow I may flip it, but that’s a decision for a future me.

Ratings: 4 stars

With each successive album Torres pushes her style and boundaries further. She’s a fearless innovator and – unlike some innovators – still ends up with songs that are beautiful and powerful. Note to songwriters: your song can be as new and different as you like, but it still has to be good.

After pressing the limits of electronica on her last couple of albums, Torres goes more traditional on “Thirstier”. Not quite radio friendly rock/pop, mind you. You can still expect atypical melodic structures and bending the use of traditional instruments to create novel soundscapes. What you can see is Torres taking more traditional forms and seeing what she can create within them. Think about someone locking themselves in a small white room, but then going apeshit painting colours and shapes all over the walls

After a couple of albums that were both erotic and dark, “Thirstier” is a markedly happier record. On “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head” and “Hug from a Dinosaur” I was left with the distinct impression that Torres has found love.

On “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in My Head” the narrator lays the choice bare for her lover: if we’re staying together then get that ring on my finger and be quick about it. The upbeat driving club-feel of the tune tells you she gets a favourable answer from her ultimatum. On “Hug from a Dinosaur” she is positively giddy with love with lines like:

“What comprises all this joy I feel and where was it before?
Ancient and eternal and surreal as a hug from a dinosaur.”

The image is a bit cutesy, but that’s love in full flower, isn’t it? Full of pet names, playful hugs, and impromptu kitchen dancing.

“Hug from a Dinosaur” and “Are You Sleepwalking?” also show off Torres’ Camaro rock side, dropping in that fuzzy guitar sound that I appreciate in bands like Ex Hex and Tacocat. I appreciate it here as well, and both tracks are standout headbangers.

Despite the slightly poppier influences, the raw sexual side of Torres is still reflected on this record. “Drive Me” is a slow burner about taking your time in the bedroom, applying the driving imagery of 10 and 2 to other activities that might result in your hands being in those positions. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more (although Torres says plenty more).

And there is still sadness to go around as well. “Big Leap” is a heartbreaking tune about premature loss. The single guitar plucks away hauntingly as Torres sets the scene with:

“I was on my way to see you on the 14^th
The morning you fell thirty feet
Your body broken on concrete
Across the country in the Georgia heat.”

The song also features one of Torres’ best vocals performances on the record, showcasing her husky low range and sweet head voice in one song.

As is her nature, Torres drops a bit of electronica into the mix, this time with “Kiss the Corner”. I don’t love electronica, but Torres manages to make me appreciate it at least like it a bit, which is no mean feat.

On the title track she pulls all of the albums influences together. The song has soft introspective sections, where Torres’ vocals hold centre stage, plus a B section that rocks out with anthemic thump. The range and interest of the record, combined with her innovative use of rock traditions had me thinking favourably of St. Vincent and Liz Phair. Those are two of my favourite artists, and with the consistently great work Torres is putting out, she is fast putting herself on the same list.

Best tracks: Are You Sleepwalking?, Don’t Go Puttin Wishes in my Head, Drive Me, Big Leap, Hug From a Dinosaur, Thirstier

CD Odyssey Disc 1154: Torres

On with the Odyssey!

Disc 1154 is… Three Futures

Artist: Torres

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Torres sits splay-legged on a couch in some house the 1950s forgot. In the mirror you can see what has so thoroughly caught her attention, as a sexy woman stretches, wearing nothing but pantyhose.

I expect that last sentence will earn me some random Google searches.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Torres through her 2015 album “Sprinter”. An early sampling of “Three Futures” went well so I took the plunge.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Torres albums and they are both great, but only one can be #1. With this harsh reality, I must place “Three Futures” in first place, but it is a photo finish. Both albums are equally great.

Ratings:  4 stars

When I first heard Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) I thought she was pretty out there; a bit on the experimental pop side and not at all my usual stuff. However, “Sprinter” was so brilliant that as long as she didn’t go any farther “out there” I would be OK. Then she released “Three Futures” which takes three giant strides further out there but is so evocative and brilliant you can’t deny its greatness.

“Three Futures” takes the experimental approach to “Sprinter” and infuses it with dark matter and electrical current. Torres embraces a heavy electronica sound, fusing it seamlessly with lyrics that express stark truths about sexuality, power and frailty. Drum machines, synthesizers and the drone of feedback set a soundscape that is immersive and yet incredibly stark. I shouldn’t like this stuff, but I couldn’t help myself.

Over this undulating ocean of sound, Torres’ voice casts a spell of seductive truth. Her vocals are powerful throughout her range, and she enunciates her words with the care of one who knows that good music is like poetry – every word matters. I was pleased to read Torres has a minor in English Literature – it gives hope for the rest of us.

Torres has many influences and I could hear the aggressive poetry of Patti Smith and the rich nineties dreamy ambience of Sarah McLachlan. There’s even a little early Enya, and the way that synth riff dances around on “Greener Stretch” sounds like some digital Celt marching to the sea.

“Three Futures” is laden with characters coming to terms with themselves and how people are drawn to one another. The whole of it drips with desire. On “Skim” she sings “There’s no unlit corner of the room I’m in” reminding you that nothing will be too personal to shine a light on. She invites you to take a dive with her into the deep end. No stone will be left unturned and no topic will be too uncomfortable or taboo.

On “Righteous Woman” she sings:

“I am not a righteous woman

I’m more of an ass man

And when I go to spread, I’m only

Squinting out a strip of land

From my panopticon.”

Lascivious twists on gender imagery strip away arbitrary boundaries, as Torres sings these lines like honey is dripping from her tongue. On top of all that, she taught me a new word: panopticon. It is a prison where a single guard can look in on any inmate at any time, but the inmates are never aware if they are under surveillance at any given moment. The voyeuristic element adds another layer to the grand seduction. We can only assume that like Torres artistic talent and fearless approach to her art, the individual rooms of her panopticon have no unlit corners.

For an album that is so laden with naked truths, there is a depth to the delivery that makes you realize that Torres didn’t come to these topics from some prurient crowd-pleasing place, but through a deep exploration of the nature of desire.

My only disappointment is the final track “To Be Given a Body”. The song has wonderful moments but at eight minutes is a bit too long, and features a lot of percussion that sounded like the speakers were turned on too loud.

It is a minor quibble on a record that otherwise thoroughly ensorcelled me. “Three Futures” was invigorating, sensual and provocative and makes me excited to see where Torres will go next with her prodigious talent.

Best tracks: Tongue Slap Your Brains Out, Skim, Three Futures, Righteous Woman, Bad Baby Pie