MUSIC

After trading in dark atmospherics the LA indie rockers craft a looser and more relaxed sound on their latest offering

Warpaint opt for a more peaceful sound on their latest LP, which shows how the all-female indie rockers have grown.

When the all-female LA indie rockers played their first Asian gig at Singapore’s Laneway Festival in 2011, the name Warpaint elicited a quizzical look even from the most clued-in festivalgoers. Having just released their critically acclaimed debut LP The Fool the year before, the Californian quartet appeared aloof and slightly nervous on stage as they soldiered through a set of spellbinding, reverb-heavy tracks including Undertow, Shadows and Elephants. Sure, there was still room for improvement as far as the live performance was concerned, but the dynamic between band members Emily Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa came through, offering a flash of the brilliance that would later be fully realised on their 2014 self-titled studio follow-up.

Having played major music festivals around the world and grown more confident as live performers over the years, Warpaint is now considered one of the best all-woman rock bands in the business. Here, they return with Heads Up, their third record proper described by vocalist Kokal as “dancier, faster and fun”.

And it is. Take, for instance, lead single New Song, which is the most vibrant, pop-oriented number the group has put out to date. “You’re a new song, baby/You’re a new song to me,” Kokal sings gleefully in the chorus. New wave-inspired The Stall follows suit with a sparse drum beat and a bassline that recalls the some of the xx’s best tracks.

And speaking of basslines, the ones that underpin Whiteout and So Good are so deliciously malleable they hands down steal the show. Less upbeat offerings Don’t Wanna and Don’t Let Go should appeal to fans of Warpaint’s earlier, more brooding material whereas Dre alludes to rapper Doctor Dre but plays like a fascinating hybrid between Forest Swords and FKA Twigs.

The title track, on the other hand, starts off slowly with a sombre vocal incantation before abruptly bursting into ripples of post-punk guitars. Acoustic-folk closer Today Dear offers a dose of calm and quiet complete with quasi-macabre lyrics (“I saw my blood drawn out, saw my flood run dry/I have no fear, my dear/Today, no moment will pass me by”).

If Warpaint’s previous releases were an all-out exploration of the more shadowy side of indie rock, Heads Up feels more or less like the antithesis of that. Drawing influences from radio-friendly pop-dance all the way down to hip-hop and R&B, the album, while still mired in murky undertones, finds the foursome at their most sonically diverse and spontaneous. As a band, they’ve grown from meek live performers to massively self-assured musicians who are comfortable enough in their own artistic skin but not too complacent to not try to break out of their comfort zone.