Warpaint stepped up their game for their self-titled third release. The L.A. quartet retreated to Joshua Tree to record their longest release to date, nearly commemorating their 10-year-mark as a band, having formed on Valentine’s Day in 2004.
“Biggy,” the fifth track on the album, vacillates between dreamy solitude and a deep, cutting groove. It isolates and estranges with ethereal keys and steadfast maracas before its signature synth line sinks its teeth into the listener. The synth’s melody lies at the heart of this groove-heavy song, creating a weight that pulls on you and invoking close-your-eyes-and-bob-your-head hypnotism. The beat beneath it pounds at a slow, anchored tempo while the vocals pour on top and stretch across the riffs in a high-pitched falsetto, all lending to this song’s dreamy, chillwave texture.
“Biggy” has Warpaint ditching their guitars in favor of layered keyboards and synthesizers. It juxtaposes the weight of the synth riff with the weightlessness of the keys. The slow motion, too-cool-for-school effect produced provides an apt carpet for Emily Kokal’s ruminative vocals. Put it altogether with provocatively broad stroked and gripping lyrics, and you have one hell of a jam.