The body is the temple of the soul. If you don't go in for that religious type stuff then how about this: A person's true self is somewhere underneath all of that sweat, blood, flesh, and bone. I found myself thinking along these lines today as I took Purity Ring's Shrines out with me on my lunchtime run. I also thought about Robocop.
Purity Ring are instrumentalist Corin Roddick and lyricist / vocalist Megan James. Shrines is the Montreal duo's highly-anticipated, debut LP. The album came out in July and could be called electro-pop, I guess; which is why it's taken me this long to get around to reviewing it. As I mentioned in my review of Grimes's Visions, electronic music falls somewhat outside my comfort zone. For an album brimming with so many inorganic sounds, Shrines places a great deal of focus on the human body.
James's voice is extremely girlish, almost childlike. I found myself wondering at times, like this New York Times interviewer, whether that was due to some studio effect; but Roddick admits in the article that he actually tries to remove some of that quality during the mixing stage. It's, mostly, her natural voice; and it provides for an interesting contrast to hear James sing "Cut open my sternum and pull, my little ribs around you..." in that child's voice on single "Fineshrine." The other contrast comes from the constant references to skin, thighs, flesh, teeth, ears, knuckles, bellies, bones, hips, eyes, and legs over Roddick's electronic beats and melodies. From album opener "Crawlersout," on which James sings, "They'll cover the hills with their sweet flesh and soft nails," to album closer "Shuck," where she sings, "I'll take up your guts to the little shed outside," just about every song on the album is a cyborg-like combination of the organic and the electronic.
That's what got me thinking about RoboCop. Throughout that movie, RoboCop has flashbacks to his life as a human being, though he appears to be much more machine than man. At the end of the film, after he kills the bad guy, he's asked for his name. He replies, "Murphy." Turns out he was in there all along.
That's kind of what's going on with Shrines. Roddick's music is intricate, pristine, programmed, and precise. It's sure to satisfy fans of electronica, and it has enough hooks to keep rockists like me interested. The soul of Shrines, though, can be found in James's lyrics which are comfortingly, messily human.
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