Calva Louise, EUPHORIC
FRKST Records / 300 Entertainment
The singles from Calva Louise’s second full length album EUPHORIC couldn’t have set the tone better. Each one was urgent, intense, fizzing with energy and glittering with Calva Louise’s most ambitious music yet – and the rest of the record follows suit completely. Every track could be a single, every track sizzles on its own, every track is uniquely and thrillingly Calva Louise. But when they come together? There’s the title – EUPHORIC is absolutely the sensation Calva Louise create with this record as a whole.
This album is the climax that Calva Louise have been building to for a long while – it’s packed not only with the singles we heard in the lead-up, but also with explosive favourites from over the last year or so including title track from 2020’s EP POPURRÍ and last year’s Trial. EUPHORIC is a sonic world Calva Louise have been building brick by brick, riff by riff, dizzying breakdown by breathless beat for a long while, and it’s finally its time to shine. The title track Euphoric follows POP(urrí), one of the cuts from furthers back, and it couldn’t be placed better to fire off into the Calva Louise future. The grit is biting and inviting, the futuristic electro effects are addictive in an Ashnikko-turned-nu-metal way, and Jess Allanic’s delivery hits a ferocious peak, screeching and snarling and impossible not to be totally taken in by.
Euphoric being the record’s rightful peak, the final battle-scene of the story, definitely doesn’t mean that the rest of the album isn’t energetic. And just because it’s all intense, definitely doesn’t mean it’s not a bubbling ball of fun, either – Calva Louise’s charm saturates every knife-edge melody and atomic riff, meaning that while it’s heavy and hard, it’s still going to have you grinning. The album’s opening pair of tracks, Free to be Lost and Hunting couldn’t sum up this dichotomy better – they’re undeniable singalongs, with massive hooks and hypnotic desert-sprawling guitar lines, but the power of what they’re kicking off is tangible.
Perhaps the greatest proof of Calva Louise’s power, beyond the fiery crescendos and the fiercest moments, is how obvious the forces they command are even in their softer moments. Tiranito’s murmured verses are positively heart-stopping before they launch into the chorus; the video game hum of Alcanzar lets seconds of silence and slow-burn gear you up for something even bigger (as it should – the album then doesn’t let up until the very end. Trial, Other Self, Malfalda, The Odds, POP(urrí), and Euphoric are a clean sweep of sheer power).
EUPHORIC is undeniably Calva Louise’s magnum opus. It cements them as unstoppable, and promises that they’re not slowing down until they’re stratospheric. The ambition of this record positively singes whatever speakers it pours out of, and more than that – there’s something about it that feels like Calva Louise have even more to unleash. Bring it on.
EUPHORIC is out this Friday.
