I love how the title of Automatic‘s newest album Is It Now? can be pronounced multiple ways to create multiple meanings, which I think was the point when they named it. It’s open for interpretation. Is it pronounced Is It Now? or Is It Now? or Is It Now? I think it might be all three.
Halle Saxon‘s funky bass on “Black Box” opens the album with synth player / lead vocalist Izzy Glaudini singing about the frustration of fighting a losing battle, be it in a relationship or the world at large. “MQ9” reveals their love of Devo and krautrock. Drummer Lola DompĂ© (who has since quit the band) puts down some of her best cyborg beats on the whole record here.
“Don’t sleep your life away,” Glaudini urges on the ultra-cool / sexy hot “Mercury” – a song about not finding excuses for your bad choices. On the next track, “Lazy,” she proclaims, “The thing you thought you wanted was just the image of control.” That’s some Zen right there.
I love how “Country Song,” a song about getting out of the city and embracing a quieter life, is pretty much a city pop song. Glaudini’s bright synths, Saxon’s happy bass, and DompĂ©’s dance drums put the song in a city club while Glaudini sings about embracing nature. The title track brings OMD and early New Order to mind with its fast beats, grumpy badger bass, and fuzzy synths. Also, the title track doesn’t give any indication on the “proper” way to pronounce the album and song’s title, which is a fun move by them.
“People are polite and frightening,” Glaudini notes on “Don’t Wanna Dance.” She’s stuck in a loud, bright club and would rather avoid the crowd and hang out on the back steps. “Smog Summer” has the band reluctantly returning to city life (“I’ll miss the rain. I’ll miss the moose. I’ll miss the sweet wind whispering tunes.”) as a thick bass riff from Saxon leads the way. It and the following track, “The Prize,” have heavy environmental themes. “Smog Summer” talks about wanton destruction of natural environments, while “The Prize” snarls at the lust for oil and how it ruins everything around it (“You’re gonna learn what the cost to the future means.”).
“Playboi” is a warning to women on the verge of a toxic relationship (“The little boy is losing his head. A malcontent that you’ll never fix. You better run, you better be quick.”). The three of them making this track one of the sultriest on the record is a great in-joke.
The closing track, “Terminal,” is sung in Arabic, with the main (only?) lyrics being “Enough is enough. The coffee boils and the fire doesn’t go out.” It’s almost a drum and bass track and ends the album with an energy boost to inspire us to do something now.
Perhaps that’s the key to the album’s title. Automatic is asking us “Are you going to do something now? How many more red flags do you need?” Now is it, because now is all we have.
Keep your mind open.
[Why not subscribe?]