'doraemon' by patricia taxxon

THIS REVIEW IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Cecily Renns (1 of 5)

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THE ALBUM

 

 

You know, this has been a long time coming. I had this album on my list for years and just never had enough will to sit down and listen to it. I listened to like, half of 'Homeward Demon' several times though. I knew of Taxxon's production skills because of that. If there's something I love and will always admire an artist for is cleanliness. This album, above anything else, sounds pretty clean.

I think this album is good, but not memorable. A couple songs and some specific moments are, but not the whole thing. The real highlight here is the entirety of Homeward Demon, and the "I hit 'em with the-" bit which was what played in my head during all these years where I hadn't listened to anything else by Patricia. Lyrically, it's interesting but not particularly impressive. "Like a homeward demon binding corpses to an elevator" is an ingenius turn of phrase though.

I kinda like the latter half of Failing, but I'd prefer it if that was the entire song. The rest kind of feels like forced pathos to me. The loud noise is unecessary. That latter half is the only time I felt any emotion from this song.

The Stars In My Head sounds more emotional to me and I really enjoy the synths and melodies, but this is a song that I would have definitely done differently if I was the producer. The percussion, specially, is too basic, both the timbres and the rhythm itself. You know what, I'll probably remix it to demonstrate my point at a later date. I also don't like how the vocals sound in the chorus; their melody, which sounds too much like the kind of faux tropical EDM you'd hear on stores in the 2010s, but also the autotune and chopping. It just sounds awkward and cringey, completely undercutting the desired emotional drive. I'd give a "You Tried" award.

One thing I didn't like about this is how long some of these tracks are. It's a personal thing, I just can't enjoy longer tracks most of the time and some artists have an abundance of them without them really warranting it. This is one of those cases. My favourite song here, Cold Water (hey, that's also the name of a Devi Mccallion song; take a shot every time I mention Devi in one of these reviews, and I mean a gun shot) is one of them. The main hook is strong and bubbly but the song overstays its welcome and I want to skip right after I hear the chorus.

I can't not mention how this album made me understand Cecily Renn's lyricism more, she's clearly inspired by Patricia when it comes to that. It's a specific type of lyricism I'm not too fond of, but it works for what they're going for. Cecily's style is closer to the lyricism in The Stars In My Head, specially the chorus; It heavily reminds me of the lyrics in Disfunctional Bunnygirl.

The songs I didn't mention here are completely forgettable. I've heard so many small indietronica albums with similar intents to this that use much more interesting sounds, timbres, and melodies, and make much better use of their time. I don't mean to sound hostile to Patricia, she is clearly a great producer and everything here sounds clean enough, the only thing it lacks is a certain edge that might be present in her other albums.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Doraemon is ultimately not an album I'd reccomend for a full listen, but if you like this kind of music you should absolutely check out the songs I mentioned. 

 

Favourites: Homeward Demon, Cold Water

6/10