Oh Wonder - Ultralife

Oh Wonder
Ultralife
2017
Spotify

Way back in 2015 it seemed like the new way of releasing music was going to be a new song each month. The Chainsmokers tried it, Oh Wonder tried it, many people tried it but the results were just ok and no one kept it up. With this new record, Ultralife, the duo pick up where they left off, but with a traditional album release. The song "Landslide" off of their self titled debut seemed to be everywhere invigorating a male female duo genre that seemed to have been put aside in some respects. Duets seem to go one of two ways, either it is something novel and interesting or some kind of throwback to Frank Sinatra or Barbara Streisand. Oh Wonder was in many ways very sophisticated and hand something to say about pop music that was not base level. It was a project that had weight to it and stakes, but those seemed to have evaporated on this new record. Ultralife was mostly recorded in non-studio settings as the band was touring the world, and it shows. Things are just kind of a mess of muddy bigness. "High On Humans" which seems to have the message of just getting high on human interaction, comes across as so childish missing any kind of edge what so ever. That is something this whole record could use a big ol' dose of: Edge. "Heavy" does not live up to it's title with the chorus sliding really close to a electronic-twee sound. You keep waiting for that glitchy delivery to come back around for Oh Wonder, but it never does.

"Bigger Than Love" is another song with huge opportunity, that just goes missed. The verses give you the idea that the song is going to build and just explode but the chorus instead shrinks and the song ends with a whimper rather than a roar. "Slip Away" is nice because they slide into this really gentle groove that is light and airy but then it lets the drums come in, then a bit of electronica. It is what made Oh Wonder interesting in the first place, interesting arrangements and bringing something new to pop music rather than just following along. However they never push enough on "Slip Away" letting all this tension they've built from the first moments of the songs just kind of fly away unused. Major Label backing has clearly made Oh Wonder loose that intimacy and that connection to the music that felt so visceral, so raw even though it was pushed through this electronica filter. "My Friends" is the real bummer on the whole album, just a piano a vocals at the beginning strings eventually come in sounding more like Celine Dion rather than Oh Wonder. It should be the last track, but it isn't and the album just sort of skids into a ending. Far to many missed opportunities and little in terms excitement means Ultralife just does not live up to any expectation. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and Oh Wonder can find themselves again.

4.0 out of 10