With the return of founding member
JT to the fold,
Islet continue to roll with the changes on
Soft Fascination. Turning away from the synth-psych idylls of 2020's
Eyelet, they span the extremes of their music on their sixth album, putting noisy outbursts on its first half and more reflective songs on the second. The band recorded most of
Soft Fascination live, and the immediacy of their performances ignites many of the highlights. "Sherry" pairs vibrant imagery -- imbibing the titular drink, sunlit hair -- with fractured synths and a slapping beat that call to mind
Daphni's techno in the raw. "River Body"'s spiky verses fall somewhere between post-punk and Afropop while its choruses fuse the grind of industrial and grunge with satisfying heft. "Flailing" is another surprisingly successful hybrid, merging the busy beats of '90s dance music with blurry shoegaze harmonies. "Hat Person"'s airy electronic pop and the sweetly narcotic finale "Kits" are among the standouts of the album's quieter moments, but too often it feels like the band is experimenting for experimentation's sake. "Sleepwalker in a Fog" juxtaposes submerged dream pop with stomping, squalling choruses that are more jarring than challenging, and "Discipline"'s queasy noise-rock feels like it's twice its three-and-a-half-minute length.
Islet's try-anything approach on
Soft Fascination is admirable, but considering the heights they reached on
Eyelet, the results are disappointingly uneven. ~ Heather Phares
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