06.05.22

“Life is too short not to strive for excellence in all that we do,” Warpaint recently declared ahead of Radiate Like This’ first single, Champion. On their first album in six years, the LA band seem to go out of their way to inspire and reassure. “I’ll wait forever/ Wait for you to take your throne,” they encourage on the aptly titled Like Sweetness. The aforementioned Champion is similarly comforting, providing a salve to our era’s current default position – division: “And here it is, I’ve got you/ And here it is, I’ll talk to you/ I’ll help you figure out everything you’re on about.” This soft rallying of spirits is a theme that recurs throughout an album that merges together enticing sonic worlds.

Of course, the four-piece have long been associated with a spellbinding, woozy take on psychedelic indie and their fourth album retains that DNA while adding brilliant new strands. Stevie is a soulful R&B love song whose velvet harmonies evoke 60s girl groups; Melting’s lightly discordant, metallic guitar pinches add new creativity, taking the track into stormy territory with a sound mimicking rainfall. Send Nudes highlights the sensual atmosphere of Warpaint’s music, asking a lover to “send a couple nudes” in a sweet falsetto. It perfectly encapsulates the intoxicating stage of new love and is a high point on an album defined by a certain, graceful ease. Or excellence? Perhaps.

Rhian Daly