A record of perfectly wonky beauty that rewards patience.

Isolation can be a very intimate thing. It can be felt when alone in a not-quite-dark-enough room, or in a throbbing crowd of noise and whispers. It lives off doubt, and can be violent and serene in equal measure. Rose Droll gets this, and is developing quite the knack for unearthing each conflicting nook and cranny that characterises this emotion.

With Strangers, the LA-based artists’ long awaited sophomore album, carries this sense of lonely integration throughout its heart. It follows the path laid by its critically acclaimed predecessor Your Dog, but with the sharp tips of the angular production even further pronounced and the accompanying tranquillity an even softer soothing addition. It is a cathartic and calming record, but this peace is earned by unexpected deviations into moments of deep sonic and emotional intensity. 

Opener ‘List Of Things To Do’ is an apt summary of this relationship. Lyrically it explores procrastination and the obsessive pervasiveness of progress, sat delicately atop deep and swooning electronic production that builds into a saturated crescendo. It is unnerving upon discovery, but repeat listens provide comfort in the shared uncertainty of what it is to mean something. 

Rose Droll’s precise production is one of the record's most striking highlights. Both ‘This Sinking Ship’ and ‘Overseas’ manage to act as the most un-sea shanty sea shanties you could conjure up, rocking with uncertainty but driven by a wrought flow that fights to power through the motion sickness. The pitch shifted synth that takes on the melody at the end of the former is emblematic of this delicate balance, providing a perfectly imperfect ending to the song. 

The emotional tone of With Strangers does not sit still. The squelching and chiming instrumental ‘Fantasy’ acts as an interlude between two acts, the first embracing immediate industrial rhythms and deep synth basses, whilst the latter takes a generally softer approach. Both halves share intriguing song structures and productional flourishes that always keep you second guessing the next step. 

There is remarkable restraint shown in every element of the instrumentation here. Even in the intense moments, big synths have a sharp and clear decay where others would find it hard to resist going ‘full boom’ in such moments. These delicate decisions give every track a feeling of trying to reach beyond its confines, and for this reason are all the more rewarding. 

As with much of this album, the novel production brings sounds which are unrecognisable, but invite comparisons with tit bit noises everyone encounters ambling through their day to day life, giving them a subconscious level of familiarity. It provides the ideal foundation for Droll’s inquisitive songwriting, which rarely seeks to answer the questions it is posing; rather, it offers you a window into her own world, an unfamiliar location tinged with moments of emotional clarity that chime effortlessly with your own experiences. 

This summarises With Strangers as a whole; at once a challenging and comforting listen, with Droll’s voice being the effortless glue that brings these two themes together in a charming marriage. As soon as you’ve settled on one melodic element, a curve ball comes along, but it is never as jarring as you’d think. It is a glacial record of perfectly wonky beauty that rewards patience, and marks six years well spent. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait as long for the next one.