Art School Girlfriend – ‘Soft Landing’ album review: an icy but optimistic step forward
It’s only been two years since Welsh indie-techno producer Polly Mackey released her first album as Art School Girlfriend. That record, Is It Light Where You Are, was dreamy and light as air, but it didn’t take long for Mackey to feel like she had already moved on. “By the time it was out in the world, I felt unattached to it,” she claimed. “This new record truly feels like my debut”. With a notable turn to darker sounds and themes, we’re now getting her follow-up, Soft Landing.
Stuffed to the brim with ambient keyboard tones, driving drum machine rhythms, and an eerie haze that hangs over the entire album, Soft Landing is a potent mix of synth-pop, industrial, house, indie rock, and goth. Rarely projecting above a thin whisper or a wilting melody, Mackey hums out soft melodies and passing thoughts that feel directly indebted to the purposeful ambiguity of Portishead and Cocteau Twins.
“‘Soft landing’ showed up to strike me when things were falling into place,” Polly says. “I was at that typical moment where you’re leaving your 20s and realising you don’t have to work toward this concept of future happiness. Going to the pub with your mates can be the ultimate. Lying beside the person you love, watching the sun come in, can be it”.
Mackey seems to be hiding her ambitions behind a fairly laddish attitude. Don’t be fooled: Soft Landing wants to be an epic encapsulation of everything, played under a cool and detached exterior. That contrast isn’t enough for the album to truly rise above its more aimless moments, but there are plenty of fascinating left turns along the way.
‘Close to the Clouds’ is a delicate balancing act between dancefloor-ready rhythms and a heartbreaking yearning for something truly meaningful. ‘Out There’ taps into the powerhouse energy of LCD Soundsystem while preserving its ambient-techno sound. ‘Blue Sky’ contrasts the summery image of its title with icy keyboard lines, clattering footsteps, and Mackey’s voice manipulated into something almost unrecognizable as she calls upon long goodnights, fading light, and changing seasons.
“I tell people this is my joyful album, and they laugh – it still feels pretty fucking moody,” she admits. “I like the light and shade, the joy can’t come without the melancholic – the queer trope of crying on the dancefloor.”
If your music tastes angle closer to Aldous Harding or, at the very least, some of the darker corners of Mitski’s catalogue, then Art School Girlfriend will be a welcome addition to that collection. Otherwise, it seems that Mackey’s best work is still ahead of her. A clear amount of talent and attention to detail from its creator isn’t quite enough for Soft Landing to differentiate itself within the dense landscape of indie music, but I wouldn’t be so quick as to dismiss Mackey. If nothing else, Soft Landing is a solid appetizer for whatever comes next from Art School Girlfriend.
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