Montreal rolled in the 2000s, producing bands like Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and Warren Spicer’s band Plants and Animals.
“Unessential Oils,” Spicer’s first solo effort, represents a vibe more than a vision. Spicer said, “The process was the therapy of working through. The result is more a document than construction. It’s what happened, not what I made happen.”
It absolutely sounds like an album of therapeutic chilling. You put it on and soak.
See Spicer shaving in the tub? The album includes the downbeat song, “Suds.” He sings, "And every day I'm trying to get back to that / I'm like a monk in deep meditation / Oh, I’m safe inside—oh, inside my suds, left alone with a cold beer in a hot bathtub / Send me back to sleep, and when I get on my feet, I’ll be a new man.”
Spicer and his collaborators coax tracks. The quiet performances emphasize delicate, shimmering percussion.
The vocal textures the sedated music with hints of strain. Spicer sings about release and holds on to his intensity.
My favorite song is the opener, “Distrust the Magician.” This sounds brutally chill.
Chords ripple under slippery drums and cymbals that sound like sun through crystal windchimes. “I’m above you now,” Spicer sings, sounding painfully removed. And I love how the drums syncopate in the outro. So good.
Album single “Chameleon” features a Latin jazz rhythm and numbed chords that lift the refrain's vocal melody: “Oh babe, I love you a lot / Oh babe, I need you now / And we could have a lot of fun just putting trouble on the run / I know we've got a lot to do, and you and me are trouble at the best of times / But living is a lot of fun—hiding like chameleon.”
And you can relate to the words in “Solutions to My Gloom,” where Spicer meditates on the sense of doom felt even in everyday, low-pressure situations. "In fact, I like it here in the waiting room / A sensе of impending doom / scroll and creep through the punctured skin / Solutions to my gloom." This, sung to the song's breathy, layered arrangement.
“Don't Go to Bed When You're Mad” wakes from sedation and expands time. The instrumentation gently pulls at Spicer’s wavering, detached vocal. The music is a helium-filled balloon, and his voice is the little string you hold on to. A guitar picks out meandering trails of freed melodic thoughts.
“Unessential oils” is an exhale—or an attempt at one. Take a deep breath.
Secret City Records released “Unessential Oils” on May 31, 2024.
Also check out Rebel Noise’s coverage of (1) the newest album by Plants and Animals guitar player Nicolas Basque and his band Bibi Club and (2) the recent Plants and Animals album, “The Jungle.”
