Oneohtrix Point Never | Love In The Time of Lexapro EP | Warp Records
Release Date: 23rd November
Written by Jenna Dreisenstock
Examining our identities within artificial spaces; love so curated it curdles saccharine, slumbers sticky on the tongue and mouths held shut with pharmaceutical FDA-approved bubblegum. Robota in truth meaning “slave labour”; the help we need crawls and stutters, seizure like in nature as our drive depletes and grief consumes. To swallow vulnerability with a handful of pills, to caress our lovers in a fatigue; so weak and quiet – so strong we sing to be, yet jaded we embrace. As a generation of Sisyphus, we are tasked in hellish labour as the sheer pain of the boulder rolls back down yet again, but unlike him our meaning is lost and discarded – robota our medication, depression our sweet kiss. Sensuality in empty pill bottles discarded and piled in wastelands of human vulnerability.
Daniel Lopatin under his moniker Oneohtrix Point Never, leaves us with bittersweet splendour in each album he produces; with themes all too relatable they sink beneath our skin in micro-chipped buzz, pin-prick shivers and chills as he delves into the expansion of the experimental. His latest EP, titled “Love In The Time of Lexapro” stings accurately in examination of this generation and our declining vulnerability in sensuality. For those lucky enough to not know, Lexapro is a common anti-depressant; otherwise known as an SSRI, which stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. As with many SSRIs, one of the main side-effects that comes with this type of medication is decreased libido. Interestingly enough, it has recently been reported that millennials interest in sex has been decreasing – and although correlation doesn’t always equal causation, if we examine our current political climate and the overall experience of this generation: the majority of us, are extremely depressed. Some dark humour, but also – not really. It’s the straight up truth. If you’re in your 20’s or early to mid 30’s it’s very likely you have experienced this at some point in your life and it affects every part of our lives, most notably the ways in which we connect with one another. OPN gets it.
Opening as a synth-drench of melancholia; angels drenched in fuzz, ‘Love In The Time of Lexapro’ breathes overwhelm within the ribcage; a gentle anxiety with the radical softness of muted heartbeat – and stop. Silence. Painful in its nature albeit so brief, the cry of a phantasm, a back and forth balance and fall lament attempts crawling in a chamber beat; a slumber heavy in ambient dreamscape. Ritualistic in summoning, the wavering spirit dotted with shimmering chimes; Lopatin brings forth a melodic synth, engulfed in an unnamed nostalgia. A longing in which one wants to shed a tear, yet with little understanding of why exactly that is; a core relation. The dreamscape builds in timbres as stretches of mountains as far as the eye can see – a sweetness that hits raw.
Introducing itself with a chiming purr, ‘Thank God I’m A Country Girl’ chirps imposingly, yet empathetically as the change in pitch amongst the tender ambience is both jarring and loving simultaneously; a landscape swirling within an unpredictable wind rolling across the hillside. An up.down.up.down oscillation of unpredictability swings sweet, as though Lopatin’s mood sinks forth from cradling the timbre gently and pushing it forth in a passion that stings slightly angry. The tone grows increasingly darker; as if clouds rolled in, ambience as raindrops grace window panes in a honeyed gloom.
In short, my outro can essentially be summed up in full by Lopatin’s title ‘Love In The Time of Lexapro’ an EP experimental in tone in a way that really hits one to the core, a melancholia in an embrace of nostalgia; as someone who relates to that painful slumber – that loss of connection due to FDA-approved chemical happiness, keeps us barely functioning in robota artificial curated spaces. To connect in the time of Lexapro, is to love in a time of numbness.
Purchase Love In The Time of Lexapro EP by Oneohtrix Point Never
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