Girlpool – What Chaos Is Imaginary

What Chaos Is Imaginary offers a view into the minds of a pair of singular artists who both understand that a glimpse of truth is a whole lot more intriguing than a disingenuous attempt at the whole thing

Album Review by Lewis Wade | 30 Jan 2019
  • Girlpool – What Chaos is Imaginary
Album title: What Chaos is Imaginary
Artist: Girlpool
Label: ANTI-
Release date: 1 Feb

What Chaos Is Imaginary, the third album from Girlpool, showcases all the wonderful sides to the band without getting too bogged down in a particular style, while still dropping enough breadcrumbs to let us see where the duo might be headed in the future.

The most obvious difference from previous albums is the change in Cleo Tucker's voice, which has significantly deepened since they started receiving doses of testosterone as part of hormone therapy. This is immediately apparent from the opening track, Lucy's, which avoids any early lyrical exposition but revels in half-hinted truths wrapped in a lackadaisical, Beatles-referencing palette.

Tucker and Tividad have spent more time apart in the two year gap between albums than previously, living in different cities and writing separately. This makes it generally more apparent as to which songs 'belong' to which member. However, regardless of who's at the helm, the album coheres neatly in both arrangement and lyricism. While Tucker tends towards the bolder, rockier end of the spectrum (Swamp and Bay, Hire) and Tividad the dark, ethereal numbers (Where You Sink, What Chaos Is Imaginary), both share a keen fascination/fear of the unknown and the unknowable.

'There's a silver lining / And a ripping seam,' Tividad ponders during the magisterial title track, highlighting the duality at the core of the band's identity; the world of idealistic opportunity and the fear of what opening yourself up might entail. It's a typically vague Girlpool lyric, open to a dozen different explanations, that seems both intimate and closed-off. Luckily, this album offers a view into the minds of a pair of singular artists who might differ in their delivery, but who both understand that a glimpse of truth is a whole lot more intriguing than a disingenuous attempt at the whole thing.

Listen to: What Chaos Is Imaginary, Swamp and Bay, Hire

http://www.girlpoolmusic.com/