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"Everything Could Be Fine"

Sun Glitters – Everything Could Be Fine
16 September 2011, 14:05 Written by Sam Lee
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Luxembourg isn’t the first place that springs to mind when you mention innovative electronica – but that may all change if Sun Glitters is anything to go by. Everything Could Be Fine, the debut album from solo svengali Victor Ferreira is probably the most eagerly-anticipated record to come out of Luxembourg since, um, ever probably. But does it live up to the hype?

First things first- it’s almost impossible to review an album like this one on a track-by-track basis. Largely driven by heavy, side-chained bass and wonky, stuttering electronic beats, Everything Could Be Fine is a record that slowly shifts and evolves as it progresses. It’s not really about the individual tracks, but more about how they piece together to form the overall album. In an age when more and more albums are becoming little more than virtual packages designed to make it as easy as possible for ‘fans’ to cherry-pick their favourite singles from iTunes, it really is refreshing to come across a record like this.

That said, there are several tracks here that do stand out from the rest. ‘A Dragonfly In The City’ is one of these, seeing reverb-drenched, pitch-shifted vocals coming tantalisingly close to forming the shadow of a melody, while the garage-tinged beat injects the track with life and character. Later on, the menacing title-track ‘Everything Could Be Fine’ marks the biggest mood swing of the album, with a snarling bass line that wouldn’t feel out of place on SBTRKT’s debut album, punctuated by choppy samples and high-pitched synths, bringing about a somewhat unsettling atmosphere.

However, the aforementioned track is something of a departure from the album’s overall mood. With strong elements of chillwave, post-dubstep, and ambient, wonky electronica, the tone of this record consistently teeters somewhere between subdued euphoria and detached melancholy. There’s plenty of emotion here, but it’s a synthetic, clinical emotion; created by the processed vocals, the swelling synths and perfectly-off-kilter beats.

Everything Could Be Fine isn’t an album to dip into whenever you please. It’s an album to completely immerse yourself in from beginning to end. It’s an album that requires, and rightfully deserves, your full attention for every single one of its modest thirty-four minutes.

To listen to an album as a complete body of work is a great thing, and spending just over half an hour with Everything Could Be Fine is every bit as enjoyable as it is rewarding. Luxembourg might not be widely considered a musical hotbed just yet, but an album like this definitely adds something to the little we already know about the landlocked country.

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