Review: The Band Perry find footing with delicious dark-pop on ‘COORDINATES’ EP

In the social media age, image and aesthetic are vital vehicles through which art is both created and enjoyed. And if you don’t strictly adhere to such preconceived branding benchmarks, you’ll have a riot on your hands. The public doesn’t like to feel they’re being duped. The Band Perry came under severe and swift scrutiny when the sibling trio scrubbed their social accounts and reemerged as yellow-caked butterflies. Gone were their folk-rock roots of deeply troubled psychologies on betrayal (“You Lie”), death (“If I Die Young”), mistreatment of love (“DONE.”) and loyalty so obsessive you lose a grip on reality (“Better Dig Two”). 2016’s one-off “Live Forever,” as a big of a hook as it does contain, felt like a paltry attempt at a fist-pumping arena cry, washing away their quirky storytelling approach for blandly-oversized commercialization.

Another round of rebranding commenced, and in the wake of high-strung hand-wringing, “Comeback Kid” arrived as a staunchly defensive side-eye to detractors. Kimberly, Reid and Neil once again shed their skin and reinvented themselves as creamy beige chameleons. When that didn’t stick, one more reconfiguration occurred in early 2017 with “Stay in the Dark,” a folk-pop hybrid that kept one foot in the past with their gaze hardening for a future that was slipping further and further away. Then-signed to Interscope Records for a global pop deal, the band cowered back from the limelight once again. It seemed as if their efforts to find mainstream success and creative fulfillment were all for naught, a tightrope act that snapped and left them dangling into the abyss.

Distraught and a little bit jaded, fans awoke on September 15 to find The Band Perry had hit reset and once again flushed their social media accounts. Ripped abs, bleach-blonde poses, desert landscapes and drip-drops of sex appeal signaled the kind of musical redesign that could make or break their career. An early stylized snippet felt wholly more natural, teasing maturity and a grounded technique in the wake of not only their age but a new-found artistic freedom in the independent scene. With far less at stake, they can write, record and sing the songs that truly move them. “Nausea when I think of the pain I caused ya / When I bit the hand, it hurt me like Jaws, yeah,” they sink their teeth into confronting the past, both in their careers and long-soured personal relationships, with the beastly “Nostalgia” track.

Painting in “minimal brutalism” strokes, as the band calls it, the trio leans into gritty electronica in the spirit of Taylor Swift’s Reputation and Britney Spears’ Blackout. “Seven Seconds” collapses under the guise of a euphoric and blissful escape from the horrors of the world. “I’m just so exhausted now / I’m feeling all this pressure now,” Kimberly broods in maddening sighs, as the production simmers and gurgles on high. Later, she steps back further from the threshold of the impending apocalypse, grunge-rock inflections clawing at her lungs, “I’m tired of living in a zoo / I think I’m done with all the hate / I’m thinking that the world can wait, world can wait.”

“Dear Departed” is dressed up as a somber funeral march. Kimberly both mourns her youth and celebrates the richness of her life now, a time ripened with wisdom that only comes with growing older. “My friends, we’ve come to bury the dear departed me / With a death of youth comes a cold, hard truth,” she advises, flames of vocoder licking and growing around her. “Can someone comfort me? / We’ve gathered here to remember the kid that I used to be.” Tears stain her cheeks, but it’s through such a transitory period that she comes to finally understand and process her pain. “We’ve got colorful hats with those rubber band straps / And alcoholic drinks / Wear some dark clothes, we’re in mourning / But we’re gon’ party until the morning comes / A celebration, maybe a séance / For all our innocence lost,” she sings. Subsequently, she allows the past to slowly slip away from her fingertips, as it fades into the production’s downward current.

With the final two tracks, the band continue to splash around in chilly pools of tropical house and electro-pop. “Run Away” takes cues from such seasoned staples as The Chainsmokers and Zedd, while also priming their own twang-inflected twists and turns. “You’re my angel, you faced my demons / You came and made the winter change its season / Devastation to celebration, you were there holding me,” sings Kimberly, whose voice flits in between colorfully distorted flaps and glitchy gusts. On “Marfa Prada,” a new level of swagger is unlocked, even more twisted and unapologetic than before. “Bye California, found an Impala / Paid with a favor, come if you wanna / Burn through Nevada, chasing Nirvana / Gon’ find God at Marfa Prada,” pounds the chorus, referencing an art sculpture piece called “Prada Mafra,” located northwest of Valentine, Texas. Constructed by artists named Elmgreen and Dragset, the self-proclaimed “pop architectural land art project” has often been analyzed as a comment on consumerism and gentrification — it’s towers amidst a sweeping desert landscape that remains otherwise untouched by man and evildoing. The Band Perry relish in that concept as much as they flee from their own roles within the world.

That seems to be the core takeaway of The Band Perry’s long-awaited Coordinates EP. It’s a glossy but organically-constructed set that not only nods to the past but demonstrates tremendous growth. While there will be those who long for the band’s days of folk-blended country music, Kimberly, Reid and Neil are more at peace now than they have been for a very long time. Across five tracks, the sibling trio are adventurous, devilishly playful and willing to push the envelope to the fringes of expectation. They’ve finally discovered a real identity.

Photo Credit: Joe Perri

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