Neuroplasticity

The grace is still there, but something far more engrossing has now been added to the mix.

With its smorgasbord of texture and tones, Neuroplasticity is a real contender for Canadian Album of the Year, and no one will be surprised if the Polaris shortlist calls Cold Specks’ name yet again.

On Neuroplasticity, her ear-popping sophomore long-player, she takes the "doom soul" architecture to an exciting new level, pumping it full of nervy post-rock and no wave, resulting in something that sounds akin to Santigold, St. Vincent, TV on the Radio, Laura Mvula, and Macy Gray at their most despondent.

Every note of this compelling album backs her up. [Sep 2014, p.72]

Cold Specks’s anticipated follow-up to her excellent gospel-indebted folk-soul debut, I Predict A Graceful Expulsion, is a much louder, much more rock ’n’ roll, much more experimental experience; fuzz and feedback and unexpected elements (like synths on Let Loose The Dogs) constantly make things more interesting.

Everywhere the listener turns on this album there is something else to be found, another subtle motif, another dab or colour. When combined with the inescapably affecting vocal and accomplished songwriting style of Spx, this creates a record that manages to reveal its treasures over multiple listens without ever sacrificing immediate appeal.

The takeaway here is that, two albums in, Cold Specks have the graceful part down pat--but there’s room for more expulsion.

Her follow-up simultaneously lets the listener into her world and bolsters her anonymity.

Her voice is as mesmeric and worldly as ever, and the instrumentation is rendered in beautiful detail. But it’s tantalising to wonder what would have happened if she would have given herself completely to chaos.

Neuroplasticity is a full-on rock record, though, as much as it's just a transition for Spx into something that takes a variety of musical turns.

Spx could do with some melodies as memorable as the music-making behind them.

Only a dearth of melodic variations disappoints. [Sep 2014, p.93]

Neuroplasticity, at times, makes Spx sound out of place on her own record.

As an album it’s guilty of being simply too cold and distancing to be able to connect to.