Spirit Phone: 8.5

Lemon Demon | Geek Rock, Synthpop, Indietronica | released 29-02-2016

Spirit Phone is a surprisingly focused and incredibly well produced record from someone who at that point, even under just this alias, had mostly made isolated joke-y songs for fun. This record is Neil Cicierega taking the prowess hes developed in his musical niche over the last decade and finally focusing it on a specific vision, and hes done an amazing job of it.

Spirit Phone is heavily inspired by occultic, slightly lovecraftian forces, and most of the songs are related to people discovering them and reacting in different ways. From a deranged scientist ranting over AM waves to a haunted murderous arcade cabinet, a lot of the songwriting takes very silly ideas and entertains them in some of the best written synthpop Ive heard. There are two love songs involving an intangible higher being.

The production style is very consistent throughout the album, and gives most tracks a hypnotic rhythm that contributes to the earworms i get from a lot of them. The drums are very punchy and at the front of the mix, with layers of synths on top of it, and so many small details you wont notice on your first listens. My favorite production touches include

• the talkboxes behind No Eyed Girl
• the wind chimes echoing in 8th notes on When He Died
• the super grim robotic TTS in Lifetime Achievement Award