ML Buch

𝙊𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬, '𝙎𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙙' 𝙞𝙨 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙧/𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙈𝙇 𝘽𝙪𝙘𝙝'𝙨 𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙗𝙪𝙢. 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 '𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙗', 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙖 𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙠-𝙮 𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙊𝙋𝙉-𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙨, 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩, 𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝘼 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙣𝙪𝙯𝙯𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙀𝙧𝙞𝙠𝙖 𝘿𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙚𝙧, 𝙅𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙁𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙧𝙤, 𝙊𝙠𝙡𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙞𝙧𝙯𝙖𝙝.
Made using almost all MIDI instruments, 'Skinned' is vintage pop record that's been dragged, kicking and screaming into the digital age. Buch is a knowledgeable, literate songwriter and a skilled producer, and if Daniel Lopatin tried to emulate the garbled sound of soft-rock radio, she manages to prize that process open and re-insert the sickly-sweet harmonies and earworms that made those OG songs so enduring. She drills into contemporary problems on 'Touching Screens' - "I'm touching screens more than skin" - but braids her expertly AutoTuned vocal harmonies with quirky pitch-bent canned electronic wails, corny bass twangs and drum rolls that sound as if they've been grabbed from an '80s power pop sample pack. It shouldn't work, but Buch approaches her songs without irony - she's clearly got a deep connection with the pop music she's referencing, from Belinda Carlisle to Fleetwood Mac.
- 'Can't Get Over You With You' is a little edgier, breaking up the radio pop bass hits and sickly sweet harmonies with Ferraro-esque soundfont play-offs and frazzled, off-grid synth solos, and on 'Sap', she descends into nauseous, reverberant ambience, sounding like a stuck Enya CD. All the idiosyncratic touches that made 'Suntub' such an essential album are present, and although 'Skinned' isn't quite as exquisitely developed, its quirkiness makes it all the more intriguing.