Creep Show – Yawning Abyss

The last we heard from Creep Show they had a distinctly darker sound – their debut, Mr. Dynamite, saw rhythmic nihilism blowing the subwoofers in a dark room at the end of the world. Yawning Abyss is one degree less catastrophic, with a cheeky twinkle in its eye.

Where 2018 Creep Show obscured its individual components, this album is unashamedly the work of John Grant and Wrangler. The contempt that Grant has always reserved for some unnamed object in his lyrics is there – as are Stephen Mallinder’s snappy non-sequiturs on the topics of children’s party games and fintech. 

The titular track is classic Grant, a soaring cinematic melody that cloaks the melancholy of its lyrics. It is glorious (not a word we at The Skinny use every day). Bungalow has the same magic touch, even if its sequencer backdrop means it isn’t afforded the push-and-pull rubato that its smoky jazz lounge aesthetic tempts us with.

This sound of a power struggle between man and computer is central to Yawning Abyss. Opener The Bellows features a dominating harmonizer which could see it snuck onto the B-side of Daft Punk’s Human After All. But it undermines that effect through subtle drags and irregularities that defy the neatness of computer-programmed rhythms. These unmistakably human touches are the key to the album’s balanced sound – still ominous and complex, but with less of an underground bunker feel than previous outings.

Listen to: The Bellows, Yawning Abyss, Matinee