#my general opinion is that her strongest albums are the middle three and the most recent

[old-stoneface]

i was wondering why the lyrics in some of the songs off laurel hell feel so much weaker than they do on previous albums, as well as on the land is inhospitable, and i checked and i was right . its bc other people were writing some of the songs w her and it made the music sound so much less unique and intense...ive talked abt my feelings on laurel hell before tho. and i do love most of the tracks on it . the land is inhospitable just feels so authentic and real and theres a lot more callbacks to previous topics in her older albums, plus you can tell she wrote the songs herself

[immimidi]

GFOTY - Ham Chunks and Wine

 Girl Friend Of The Year (GFOTY) has released one of (if not) my favourite EP of 2020 so far.

Ham Chunks and Wine is such a creative collection of music; giving elements of experimental, dance, europop and pop. 

The title of the album is the perfect amount of weird and intriguing. conjouringing images of experimental/weirdo music with the mention of Ham Chunk and images of classy pop music, with the addition of Wine, perfectly summing up album.

Most importantly this EP is the most fun I have had with an EP for a while and GFOTY comes across as someone who knows how to have fun with her music.

Track one: Wide - Wide is the most ‘PC Music’ style of song on the EP, the use of heavy pulsing bass synths and re-pitched/pitch shifted vocals are very reminiscent of most of PC music’s big hitters. The chilled out middle section breaks up the song perfectly allowing for a change in the energy when compared very tense chorus sections and the utterly chaotic final section, which to my ears is one of the most beautiful pieces of chaotic arrangement I have ever heard, In fact it made me shout “FUCK HECK YES!!!!” and pull that face everyone pulls when the beat drops. 

The voice production in wide starts the EP off as it means to go on pulling the attention of the ears by providing the melody section due to the very heavy processing and re-pitching of the vocals. It sounds stellar giving it a nice futuristic vibe that tbh until this EP only SOPHIE had been able to create to such a standard consistently. This heavy vocal processing and the use of SFX and ASMRy...ASMR-esque sounds combine to make such a perfect vibe and production aesthetic for the track. While we are talking about the voice I do need to say that the lyrics of this song are inconsequential apart from the titular word, they to me don’t provide any extra context to the track, they are their purley to support the voice and provide more for the voice to do....They are perfect in this role. ‘Wide’ is the perfect word to be used for this song as despite all the sound and processing the mix has soooooo much room in it and the movement and panning create a suitably wide mix. 

That 3rd section I cannot do justice by words. LISTEN TO IT. It is phenomenal and chaotic and I LOVE IT. It gets my Mwah chef’s kiss moment for this track.

4.75/5 /A+/ Big YES

Track Two: Magician’s Wand - What to say about Magician’s Wand, other than I wish it lasted longer. 

That lazer gun bass synth that ‘BWAHHS’ its way across the low end of the mix being paired with equally lazery high synths and that ever present robot voice production that GFOTY is so good at - Keeping that amazing futuristic vibe that ‘Wide’ had but building on it by adding more layers and filling the mix out slightly.  The chaos of the harmonic elements is a great for keeping the interest of the ear while very simple beat in both the intro section and the second sections seals the chaotic experimental sounds in a pop music shell, keeping the music palatable for non-experimental music listeners, something that GFOTY had difficulty with in the song USA -Which I adore but my friends found hard to listen to. 

The vocal production is very similar to ‘Wide’ which is nice to see a consistent aesthetic throughout the first two tracks giving us expectations to be subverted in future tracks. A big plus to this tracks vocals is the lyrical content as it provides nice little sound bites that are kinda suggestive adding a bit of human in the robot aesthetic of the voice.

Mwah moment - the ‘BWAHH’ synth that truly sets the mood for the rest of the much too short track.

4/5 /A/ Big YES

Track Three: Rid Of All (Feat Count Baldor) - This track’s intro is the perfect change of pace from the last two tracks, subverting the expectations of another experimental PC Music style synth fest, by opening up with a clean held pad synth and a less processed vocal alongside it. 

Describing the pad synth used in my notes I simply wrote ‘lovely pad’ but that doesn’t do enough justice to how soft and clean this pad is, if a pillow was a pad this pad would still be softer it is so cool to hear after the chaos and the ‘BWAHHs’ of the previous two tracks.

The break section with the whispers is so beautifully haunting and it serves as the perfect jumping off point for this song to take in any direction and GFOTY/Count Baldor jump off perfectly and unexpectedly into a 00s/eurodance style beat with perfectly cheesy bass synths (LGBT+ club music/my kind of music). 

The voice in this new section is also unexpected and shouldn’t fit into this style of music but does perfectly. It shouldn’t fit in because its a metal guitar - I can’t figure out if its a talkbox or the single most processed voice ever recorded or if it’s a guitar and a voice with the same fx being cut between by Baldor and their amazing DJ skills, or if it’s all three, but tbh I don’t care it’s incredible and sounds so good in context with the rest of the track. 

The eurodance section dies down and returns to that clean synth/vocal section, which reminds me of Imogen Heap and Bjork, in this section we can get a breather from the utter glory and madness that was the previous section and we get to hear the lyrical content and the lyrics are phenomenal in this section they are perfect for the eurodance/electro pop vibe the track presents and are most importantly FUN, something that in my opinion some pop music has been shying away from by trying to sound profound. I love the use of harp and SFX in this section further reminding me of Bjork and also giving the section a faux dream quality before adding the heavy bass synths in getting ready to drop us back into eurodance madness. 

The Eurodance sections do not fail to put a smile on my face and I love every second of them, I am happy that GFOTY/Count Baldor chose to break them up with some slower ethereal sections because it makes their inherent cheesiness even more happy.

Mwah moment - EURODANCE GUITAR VOICE MADNESS (the only way i can describe it)

5/5 /A+/ BIGGEST YES

Track Four: By My Side - This track slaps, simple as. It’s another track that made me shout ‘FUCK HECK YES!!!’ it is another track that knows how to have fun and puts a smile on my face. 

The track opens with a simplistic and effective pop-house piano melody with pop voice production. Yet again GFOTY’s voice production is stellar the change from the robotic re-pitching to very subtle FX usage in this track works and it creates this nice pop music moment and proves our girl doesn;t need to sound like a sexy robot to sound incredible - though if you know any of her other work you already knew this.

The background synths in this section give a nice dance music vibe off especially those saw melodies and that when that liquid bass comes in and white noise generators hit I am transported to Ibiza, loving every second of the song...and then It happens, that sampled melody is used and I LOSE MY FUCKING BLOODY MIND. GFOTY may have used sampled melody better than anyone ever, GFOTY samples ‘I’m Blue (Da Ba Dee Da Ba Die)’ and it is glorious I don’t think I could ever put into words just how amazingly good the use of sampling is, how perfect the sample is and how happy and excited it made me (Mwah moment for sure). A counter synth is used and it is very true to the vibe of Ibiza dance but it just seems like it could do more that flick between chords - though a new counterpoint is used in the next sample section, YES IT HAPPENS AGAIN.

But before it happens again we are given space to breathe with a house section using the first counterpoint synth as a counterpoint chord synth with the classic house piano to take us from modern Ibiza to 1989 and then the trance-esque melody synth used in the background flings us straight into the 90s and the birth of trance music - kinda reminds me of ‘9 PM Till I Come’. This section is the perfect length of breather and is a credit (as is the rest of the album tbf) to just how good GFOTY is at arrangement of synth based music. I love her voice in this little breather section she sounds so good with this minimal (compared to the previous tracks) production and the fact she is singing in a lower register as well, I really love her voice here. 

After a short build section we are given the treat of that sample again. The use of voice synth in the build section is very nice and a great callback to the previous tracks. But the only thing that matters is that sample and it hits just as hard if not harder the second time, as it has all of the synths surrounding it.

This track is a love letter to 90s-00s dance music and honestly I love every second of it. 

Mwah Moment - THAT SAMPLED MELODY

6/5 /A++/ BIGGER THAN THE BIGGEST YES

Track Five: Here With Me - The perfect ending to a perfect EP, so perfectly subverts expectations the previous tracks have set-up and showcases GFOTY’s pop writing prowess, her prowess as a performer and that she isn’t all silliness. 

The track opens on a gorgeous, musical theatre esque piano line. The piano has such a beautifully natural timbre which is expertly countered with a processed (I think re-pitched) vocal and it is phenomenal. Despite this heavy processing GFOTY is able to give a ridiculously emotional performance with the voice cracks and vocal fries being present making this robot character that the processing has created since the beginning of the EP appear even more human and broken - it is powerful songwriting and production intertwining. 

The overall aesthetic of this track is very musical theatre, when making my notes I even wrote ‘Almost Disney’ it is just a pure performance being backed up with some of the strongest production I have heard in experimental pop music for a while. The Lyrical content is so beautiful and emotional and says a lot about mental health and how relationships and dependance can affect a person.

GFOTY’s vocal performance is entrancing I have already gushed about how much I love her singing in a lower register. In this track it is no different her voice in the low register is beautiful and when she lifts into her high notes they hit more emotionally to my brain because i can hear her strain and it makes her performance that much more satisfying to listen to.

The extra instruments that add phrases to the track throughout give a little bit of variation to the instrumental arrangement ensuring that the voice/piano combination doesn’t grow stale. As the track buidls and adds more instruments they don’t stick around to clog the mix up. A lesser artist (Me) would have left them in and keep adding instruments to keep building leading to parts of the mix and arrangement feeling clogged up, GFOTY knows when to add and lose instruments to keep the mix open. 

The Guitars are really pretty touches in what feels like the final build of the track only for the build to die completely and become that beautiful haunting marimba section, with the string swells adding to the emotion and the theatre of this section before the perfect outro of just voice and piano - I almost cried.

Mwah Moment - That voice, That performance 

5/5 /A+/ BIGGEST YES

Final Thoughts

Honestly all electronic acts should be scared of just how good this is.This EP spans the emotional range being Tense and Bone Crushingly hard in track one,  Imaginative and Cool in track two, Silly and Fun in tracks three and four, and emotional and beautiful in track five. A testament to GOTY’s talent and just how good electronic music can be. I was smiling throughout, such a good EP

Mwah Moment - The arrangement of each track on this EP is fantastic and perfect.

Overall - 5/5 /A+/ BIGGEST YES