Twenty years ago, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor transformed the death of Taylor’s boyfriend into the homonymous Azure Ray debut album. They also transformed their own creative collaboration from the alternative-rock snap of their earlier band, Little Red Rocket, into melancholy-shadowed dream sounds.
Remedy, the first new full-length from Azure Ray since 2011’s Drawing Down the Moon, follows upon the 2018 reunion EP Waves with a continuation of the dreams, deepened by the years that have passed and the dark changes to the waking world Taylor and Fink share with the rest of us.
The changes aren’t naked-ear evident at first: “Swallowing Swords” opens Remedy with cloudily plaintive piano, aura-conjuring synths, and tenderly poised vocals—elements that Azure Ray has previously, regularly combined to such heartbreaking effect that even Moby and Taylor Swift took notice.
However, once Azure Ray and producer Brandon Walters swirl analog and electronic instruments around Taylor and Fink’s graceful harmonies, lost time wrinkles the lyrics of “Already Written” into longing for the illusory simplicity of youth. Even within the jeweled melodic droplets and bone-deep rhythmic pulse of “Desert Waterfall,” a line like “That I feel anything makes me proud” suggests the years have not been kind enough.
“But I wanna see it all,” Taylor and Fink sing back at themselves in that same song, and Azure Ray’s characteristic blend of folk, country, EDM, and pop forms a counter-suggestion that artistic beauty remains kind, whether it pulls back from the building fury of “The Swan” with a classical-strings coda or strums confidently toward the end of the hesitantly hopeful title track.
For Azure Ray, beauty also remains uplifting: “I Don’t Want to Want to” closes Remedy aching for the possibility of love, a curiously airy and loping beat pushing Taylor and Fink toward the dancefloor. As ever, their music makes them lighter despite the weight of loss.
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