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thebedroomwitch aplaceofhurt
Artist: The Bedroom Witch
Title: A Place Of Hurt
Genre: Dark Synth Pop
Release Date: 4th November 2022
Label: Psychic Eye Records / Ratskin Records


Album Review

THE BEDROOM WITCH is the brainchild / project of Iranian born but LA resident Sepehr Mashiahof. The project was started around nine years ago and in that time numerous albums and singles that chant spells and “allude to inevitable apocalypse while embodying the creative exhaustion of isolation” have been released. This current release opens up on subjects such as abandonment, self-sabotage and the romanisation of pain whilst at the same time being a “love letter to heartbreak in a city”. Well, a mixed bag of sausages this is! I like it, I don’t like it, it annoys the hell out of me and then it does the opposite. Most of this album sounds like the artist has had a listen to their favourite CURE and DEPECHE MODE albums and then decided to cherry pick the best guitar licks and keyboard phrases and then mash them together with some of their own stylings to create a whole that’s all of the above.

Album opener ‘My Only’ wouldn’t be out of place on a CURE / PET SHOP BOYS album, the lyrics go on about making mistakes or something. ‘Nothing Left Inside Me’ lolls along in a Martin Gore ‘Some Great Reward’ kind of way which I like (with caveats). But the CURE-like guitar is a vein that traverses the whole album from ‘In The City’ all the way to ‘I Cause You Pain’ via ‘Wait A Week’ in the middle, which by the way has a boy band feel to it that I fucking hate. Ok, the CURE like aural styling is not original but for the most part it works well on all the tracks it appears and is pleasing to the ear but the thing that gets my goat is the vocal delivery. I find it whining and monotonous.

No disrespect to Martin Gore but if I had to listen to a whole album of him singing, I’d have to kill myself. Anyway, this plods along grabbing my interest to varying degrees before brushing it off, then it takes my interest off somewhere and pushes it off a cliff. ‘Cher, Everywhere In LA Takes 20 Minutes’ reminds me of cheese, I don’t why, I just have an image of a large block of cheddar floating in front of my eyes, and it won’t go away. Anyway, the last four tracks inspire and interest to varying degrees, ‘Venus’ being darkly danceable, one could make shapes in the dry ice with this whilst in a drunken haze. ‘I Cause You Pain’ has the aforementioned CURE guitar with ice cold drip drop keyboards, an echoey vocal completes the soundscape. This is one of the few tracks where the vocals aren’t as annoying.

In summary: This is well put together, well-spaced and even though it sounds very CURE and DEPECHE MODE, musically it’s a good listen. All the other elements like glue bring it all together. Apart from the vocals. There’s something about the croon that I just don’t like!


Tracklist

01. My Only
02. Nothing Left Inside Me
03. In This City
04. Cher, Everywhere In LA Takes 20 Minutes
05. Crossing Over
06. Wait A Week
07. Don’t Promise Me Anything
08. Venus
09. I Cause You Pain
10. Procession


Line-up

Sepehr Mashiahof - All Instruments, Lyrics, Recording and Mixing


Website

https://bedroomwitch.bandcamp.com/


Cover Picture

thebedroomwitch aplaceofhurt


Rating

Music: 6.5
Sound: 6.5
Total: 6.5 / 10


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