Deradoorian – ‘Ready for Heaven’ album review: an alluring art-pop channel of social malaise
THE SKINNY: Scoring the collective spiritual howl silently screamed amid late-stage capitalism’s core doesn’t necessarily inspire great art in and of itself. While stuffy polemics or mushy attacks on ‘the system’ can pull a lesser artist toward clichés, Los Angeles‘ Angel Deradoorian thankfully examines the contemporary malaise we’re all wading through on a more somatic and intuitive level. Formerly a member of indie band Dirty Projectors, Deradoorian’s subsequent solo efforts have subsumed a heady brew of sonic eclecticism across experimental chamber pop, jazz-spiked post-punk and minimal synth that all swirl together with fraught synergy on her latest solo LP since 2020’s Find the Sun.
Dwelling in a cavernous pool of pop expanse, Deradoorian conjures Ready for Heaven‘s restless creative character like an allusive mirage. Skitterish drumbeats flash with apparitional flight, piano drops percolate from ambiguous directions, and guitar stabs jab from the dark. None of the compositional array causes unease or disquiet, but rather sincerely channels the societal noise of modern political rot like a creaky ghost train or beat-up haunted house. There’s a playfulness at Ready for Heaven‘s centre that marries strangely with the album’s solemn thematic grounding, the two sentiments never cancelling each other out.
Sharp U-turns and leftfield detours into Ready for Heaven‘s genre grab bag all artfully amount to a pleasing mosaic hop around Deradoorian’s myriad musical fancies. Penchants for mutant disco, baroque psych, dance-punk, and krautrock rumbles all smatter the lyrical existentialism for meaning in an increasingly hollow world. Curiously, the disparate hues and flavours assembled spark with a subtle incongruous frisson, as if each bassline or synthwash is jammed together like jigsaws shoved in the wrong slots. Far from triggering a jarring experience, the prickle that lies underneath the record’s 40 minutes bristles with a fraught clash, illustrating the anxious mediative pangs of Ready for Heaven‘s conceptual target on a visceral plane.
Let’s not get lost in chin-stroking, long-distance appreciation, however. For all its cerebral critique, Deradoorian rustles up a record that grooves with crackling immediacy, crafting marvellous little snapshots that can either skulk with lounge languor or pull the most committed naysayer to the underground dancefloor. It’s the confounding dimensions and sentiments that fundamentally charge Ready for Heaven with a beguiling yet thrilling energy, both beckoning terse contemplation while also wresting a colourful irreverence from the everyday gloom.
For fans of: Anyone with a Robert Crumb ‘Keep on Truckin’ tattoo.
A concluding comment from William Morris: “This is what I’m talking about!”
Ready for Heaven track by track:
Release: May 9th | Producer: Deradoorian and Sonny DiPerri | Label: Fire Records
‘Storm in My Brain’: Bass licks guide a path around wriggling guitar crawls and scaling keys in a lively dub womb. Aptly sounds just like bad weather in one’s head. [3.5/5]
‘Any Other World’: Crunchy synth arpeggios dance with soaring keys that climb emotional peaks. Subtle dance number with quiet dramatic scope. [4/5]
‘No No Yes Yes’: Deradoorian is seriously wearing her love of ZE Records on her sleeve here. Expert flex of minimal skulk spiked with weird blasts of dissonant flute. [4/5]
‘Digital Gravestone’: A descending chiller flooded with cinematic allure. A skronky sax solo heightens the trepidation. [4/5]
‘Set Me Free’: Fizzy psych splendour and droplets of baroque whisk all radiate with transportive lilt. A shimmering slice of grandeur. [4.5/5]
‘Golden Teachers’: Rolling piano riff loops with near dentist-drill irritance. A hectic number which vies for your attention with nervy energy. [3/5]
‘Purgatory of Consciousness’: Eerie instrumentals submerge into the fetid pool of societal fray. A stark thematic unveiling of what Ready for Future is grappling with. [4/5]
‘Reigning Down’: Echoes of NRG disco? Dosen’t quite lift off like the phoenix it teases, but a welcome shade of pumped electro. [3/5]
‘Hell Island’: Smoky jazz lounge on the 13th floor. Buzzing insect strings and trance percussion close the album on a thrilling note of Lynchian intrigue. [4.5/5]
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.