EMA – The Future’s Void
Rating: 
Erika M. Anderson, the lady behind the moniker EMA, has been creating music in various ways for years, but broke out on her own in 2010. Two album releases later, EMA has become what the kids these days are calling a Buzz Band; this lady has been the talk of the indie music blog scene. Which leads me to a pertinent question: should we believe the hype? The short answer to that question should already be apparent to you via the star rating I gave The Future’s Void, but the long answer is much more interesting.
While I applaud the overall reach of this album, there are too many aspects that are impossible to listen past. Take “So Blonde,” or really any of the songs on this record for example. You start out alright, some simple acoustic guitar, and stadium rock drums; a departure from the opening track that is layered with synths, ambient noise, and drum machine. The second track is EMA’s take on a straight rock song, but sadly, its humble beginnings are a bit misleading. While you hope that the music will build into an explosive chorus, what you get is Anderson screaming “So blonde!” without a real change in the instrumentation. The lack of diversity within a single song is monotonous and fails to make me want to listen.
Maybe I just don’t get it, but this record never really pulled me in. The tracks blur together, and the vocals subtract from the overall direction of “lo-fi” or “electronic” that I feel the record is trying to go for. That is to say, the usage of vocal effects seem to be gimmicky, and not only that but grating to listen to. A perfect example of this comes on “Cthulu,” which begins with dramatic fuzzy synth slow beats, which makes the sound seem like it is building up to a climax. As it progresses, we get Anderson’s vocals added to the mix, but other than that the song stays where it started, not steadily building, but static in its sound. Then, all of the sudden, we are suddenly elevated, Anderson’s shriek bursts into the song and serves as a bit of a fright, but the small dose of hazy screeching doesn’t seem too bad, but kind of an electronic punk rock-move that would suit a bold front woman. However, later in the song, what was a brief moment of passionate screaming becomes repeated over and over, which not only diminishes the passion from earlier, and takes away from the awesome instrumental build that’s happening in the background, but also becomes so grating that I found it difficult not to immediately skip on to the next song. This is not a phenomenon that is uncommon on this album.
Perhaps I missed something vital that would give me the key to enjoying The Future’s Void. If you find it, please let me know, as I really wanted to like this record, but for now my feeling is that EMA fell short.