Barbara [Exclusive Red Marble]

Brooklyn’s Barrie Lindsay makes lush, dance-inflected indie pop whose unorthodox influences and imaginative twists shine brighter than the lyrics.

Barrie Lindsay is a consummate producer in search of an ideological north star. In sound, the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based musician’s self-produced and self-recorded second album, Barbara, is lush and refreshingly unorthodox: harp and horn parts mingle with breakbeats, baroque synthwork, hazy vocal fragments, and warped, Alex G-style guitarwork.

In a sea of avowedly traditionalist indie rock and barely veiled emo revival, it’s a refreshing palette cleanser. But as a whole, the record can feel vexingly incomplete, like a sumptuous oil painting whose foreground has been hastily sketched in. Lindsay’s sweet-but-vague lyricism rarely feels fueled by the same gonzo instinct that guides her deft production.

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Pitchfork
Barrie - Barbare Review