Stream: Doe Paoro, ‘Hypotheticals’

Daiana Feuer on September 24th, 2015

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In “Hypotheticals,” Doe Paoro sought to find a common ground between gospel and electronica, but my ears are more drawn to the oceanic moments, drifting out on the opening notes of the song, which crash back on the shore of her emphatic verses. This ebbing and flowing continues throughout, and indeed the instruments themselves serve a choral purpose, making it a unique pop song that should land itself on the radio airwaves. For her sophomore album “After,” which Anti- is releasing Friday, the native of Syracuse, N.Y., recorded at April Base, a Wisconsin ranch house-turned-studio, working with producers Justin Vernon and Sean Carey (both of Bon Iver) and BJ Burton (of The Tallest Man on Earth, Sylvan Esso and more). While in the past the L.A.-based Paoro focused mostly on piano, “with this album, we built an entire world with the sonics alone,” she says, creating an ambient blending of R&B, synth-pop and indie electro, and claims Carole King, Portishead, and Aretha Franklin as influences. Where lyrics are concerned, Paoro says, “The record is a meditation on time, and its illusions — the way each ending is simultaneously a beginning; its ability to speed up, drag or stand still; contract or expand a moment — and the only awareness of what it had been coming retrospectively, or ‘After.'”

||| Stream: “Hypotheticals” and “Growth/Decay”