BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition January 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS
Porches
The House
Domino
Aaron Maine’s best songs as Porches are about
being alone. His 2016 sophomore album, Pool,
was a nuanced examination of loneliness filtered
through some of the catchiest pop music in recent
memory. The House, his third album, deals with
many of the same themes, but where Pool felt
like an introspective bedroom record, The House
expands outwards into anthemic synth pop that
exudes emotional catharsis.
In many ways, The House could be a slog of an
album, but it’s a rare record that feels both personal
and populist. As Maine sings about self-isolation
and retreats within, he manages to never exclude
the listener from these moments.
On the album’s second single “Find Me,” Maine
embraces the healing powers of solitude: “Think
I’ll go / Somewhere else / Where I can sink / Into
myself / Just watch me go / Just watch me go,” he
sings overtop clanging cymbals and a ‘90s bass
organ that syncopates with the song’s 4/4 kick
drum. It’s not often that dancefloor-ready songs
start off a verse with “Touch my neck and walk me
home / And I’ll be fine once I’m alone,” but here, it
works perfectly.
On “Anymore,” Maine returns to the wobbling
auto-tuned vocals that felt so out of place on Pool,
but now they sound like a tasteful artistic decision.
In several places on The House, Maine covers his
impressive singing voice with robotic auto-tune
that sounds like Cher’s “Believe” for the hipster set.
It’s a stylistic choice that won’t win everyone over,
but it works to disembody Maine’s voice in ways
that are often quite intriguing.
Late album highlight “Goodbye” finds Maine
sinking away again, but this time it’s from an ending
relationship: “I feel it move, I feel it ache / It’s sad
to see how much you changed / I’ll slip into a cold
lake / now I just feel it slip away.” He doesn’t wallow
long, though, as the song bursts into major key
chord stabs and thumping drums before its three
minutes is up.
Maine began working on The House right after
completing Pool, and the records tend to feel like
they were made with the same sonic palate. “W
Longing” feels the most like a leftover from Pool,
but it’s a welcome addition to The House, where its
instantaneous melody and pleading chorus (“Tell
me what you want to hear / I want you to hear it
/ Tell me what you want to feel / you know I want
you near it”) make it one of the strongest songs in
the Porches catalog.
In The House, Maine makes chintzy euro house
sound like high art. It’s as though Alice DJ packed
her bags and moved to Bushwick. There’s no one
making music quite like this right now, and it’s hard
to imagine anyone doing it any better if they tried.
Yet The House isn’t without its flaws. It is a record
that can feel maddeningly sparse at times. Rarely do
songs cross the three-minute mark, and, while every
song that does is fantastic, it makes the one- and
two-minute tracks feel like interludes that aren’t
needed. Admittedly, it’s a minor gripe, but it’s hard
not to think how much more affecting this record
would be with a little more flow.
Still, even with its minor flaws, The House is a
must-listen record that is as affecting as synth-based
music gets.
• Jamie McNamara
• Illustration by James Mackenzie
January 2018 25