White Denim’s literally titled 12th album opens with the fidgety “Light on.” Drawing a line between electronica and Tropicália, it exudes sunniness. “Econolining” and “Flash Bare Ass,” up next, are equally peppy, as bright and similarly accord with the idea of pop as a mix-and-match grab bag – albeit from an off-centre perspective.
After this, 12 is about left turns. No one style is embraced. Each track has its own character, distinct from what has come before. “Flash Bare Ass” – a wry commentary on forming relationships in the mobile-phone era – is followed by “Cat City #2”, a 40-ish seconds morsel akin to the soundscape sections of The Beach Boys’ Smile. Then: “Look Good” (shades of Prince’s funk), “Second Dimension” (nods to Stevie Wonder and electro-funk pioneers Zapp), "I Still Exist" (Hall & Oates), “Your Future as God” (Todd Rundgren were he revisiting harmony poppers The 5th Dimension). “Precious Child,” the album’s final track, enters smoky, jazz-ballad territory. While Seventies and Eighties soul are never far, 12 is disconcertingly magpie-minded.
It is also unlike any previous White Denim album. The guitars and hectic blam-blam-blam attack which defined the then Texas-resident band’s dance-edged, jazz-adjacent take on post-punk are largely gone. As are, seemingly, all band members except main-man James Petralli, who has recorded 12 on his own at his Los Angeles home. Guest musicians (including Midlake’s Jesse Chandler; Chicago indie duo Finom, on the Aerial Pink-ish/psych-era Prince-inclined “Swinging Door”) and vocalists (amongst whom is Texas soul singer Tameca Jones, heard on “Look Good”) have recorded their contributions remotely, and Petralli has then woven the results into each track. This is a new way of working for records credited to White Denim.
Taken on their own, any of 12’s 12 tracks (even the short “Cat City #2") work a treat. But overall, assembled as an album, what’s heard does not cohere. It sounds as if Petralli’s new way to make music hasn't bedded in. And as if this album is part of a journey to a destination which hasn’t yet been settled upon.
