Following the release of the hyper-surreal album ‘Zeros’, Declan Mckenna celebrated by performing the new album live in London to hundreds of fans.
Whilst I must admit, I was sceptical about how well a live streamed performance would go down, I was definitely wrong to doubt. Mckenna’s new album is radiant, otherworldly and my god does it create an impact!
Every track on the album has its own dystopian life force, it ebbs, flows and crashes through the speakers in its own distinctively addictive form, although it really is a listen at your own risk because once you start …. you can’t stop.
It isn’t often that artists can experiment with their sound like this and be so successful, but clearly Mckenna knows exactly which buttons to push to get fans cheering (even if it’s from the other side of a computer screen).
So much effort, passion and hard work has gone into the album and the performance is no exception. A huge model tree with metallic hoops as the leaves took centre stage as Mckenna turned the gig into a truly dystopian performance with, morphing the lights, sound and mood to keep you hanging off of every note and flutter.
‘Zeros’ is truly psychedelic experience, jolting you into a warped world not so different from our own. This otherworldly vision is carried by tracks like ‘The Key to Life on Earth’ and ‘Twice your size’ which direct the off-kilter sounds and distortions to grab you, hook line and sinker.
The trance like backbeats and eerie electricity don’t falter, flavouring the album to become this blazingly ethereal psychedelic trip. ‘Eventually Darling’ is a prime example, presenting what initially appears to be a softer element, before turning it on its head with the high pitch vocal distortions of ‘Trying not to trip’.
‘Emily’ punctuates the album with a raw melodic beauty that finely tunes each of your heartstrings to break on the lyric ‘It’s hard for me’.
The album has a habit of being simultaneously passive and intrusive which makes the whole off-kilter experience so impressive. Rocketed by deeper meanings and societal challenges, ‘Beautiful Faces’ is one single in particular which you might not realise points a big middle finger up to ‘societal norms’.
Littered with unusual, ethereal sound effects and jumps, ‘Beautiful Faces’ is so brilliantly distinctive yet vague, pointing out our obsessions with aesthetic beauty and forcing us to project our own anxieties of alienation and helplessness into the track.
Every track is performed and executed perfectly as ‘Zeros’ shows us an, older, more experienced side to Mckenna, one which isn’t afraid to ask questions or challenge, both through the lyrics and sound. Each and every feeling is savoured and moulded into the dazzling sound of ‘Zeros’, giving you that bubble and rush of excitement you usually only get from being at a live gig.
Give Zeros a listen below!