Who do you really listen to? Who are the people that get you to shut up, pay attention and, if requested, do as they say? If you’re like the vast majority of modern people, there are very few to whom you afford this level of trust.
Teachers, preachers, parents and spouses all try to influence you. But few of them manage to do anything. You probably don’t even turn on your radio when the president starts talking.
But, if you’re like most people, you won’t just listen to a great song, but you’ll try to decipher what kind of strange magic, what sort of perfect symmetry, what spells give the tune its magic and make it speak directly to you. That’s the kind of power modern musicians can have on people, and knowing this, Canadian group Loveproof tries to create a kind of pop incantation with its latest collection of songs captured on the “Neon Blood Volume 2” album.
Because of these expectations, and as a result of the individual member’s potential, nothing here is played directly, none of the arrangements are typical, and none of the performances are of meat-and-potatoes rock n’ roll.
Just listen to the opening track, “Blood Eagle,” where guitar arpeggios moan over a futuristic beat and where vocalist Ciaran Megahey describes an almost ceremonial revealing of harsh truths underneath an August moon.
On Loveproof’s songs, the meaning is hidden behind dreamlike imagery and sounds that constantly come together and fall apart like giant marble statues that are built from nothing, tear themselves down and continue in this way endlessly.
“Midnight Sun”, with its goth-tinged dance-rock sound, brings to mind 1990s Depeche Mode compositions. The track allows Megahey to deliver hypnotic lines about a world in which nighttime has been vanquished, and where it’s the singer’s duty to invoke the darkness.
“Neon Blood Volume 2” delves deep into these nocturnal fantasies. Cleverly, none of the songs work against the mood set by the first tracks on the album. On “Daughter of Time,” the band digs into a mesmeric bass groove. “Painted Like the Sun” brings to mind Mark Lanegan’s ghostly baritone. And, on “Night of the Flowers,” Megahey sounds like a gatekeeper to some enigmatic portal that this precise combination of sounds will help to open.
Still, the band doesn’t rely on just one strategy. There’s a wealth of musical influences brought into Loveproof’s compositions. “Mirrors” echoes modern dream pop. “This Hunger” could be a dark reinterpretation of ’90s pop. And, “The Greenest Eyes,” with its convincing chorus melodies, could be the band’s twisted take on arena-ready synth-pop.
Where does it all leave us? Lost under the spell of the music and staring at the spectacle of the world with acceptance. As the final track proclaims: “Cruel is the nature that made them untouchable,” and you get the feeling that Loveproof has mastered the art of making sophisticated dark pop inspired by things both beautiful and merciless. These compositions’ greatest trait is that they will not allow you to look away.
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