Born Gold-Hunger

There are artists who try to change their sound with every album, then there are artist who actual manage to accomplish this, fitting whatever direction they've gone in as an actual extension of their music and sound. Born Gold is one of those artists. At this point it shouldn't be so startling when Born Gold sound changes so radically with a new album announcement, but even with that foresight and the news of I Am an Exit, it took me more than a few listens to truly process "Hunger". The song is strangely more straightforward than anything Born Gold has done before. It is built around very little arrangement: some very dry, thumping beats, chiming synths, and Cecil Frena's vocals, which are now pitched down to their normal (or at least a lower) octave. And yet, this wouldn't be a Born Gold song if there wasn't something askew contained within the core. Everything within "Hunger" just feels ever so off-kilter; as much as it wants to be a modern pop song, it has an uncanny valley quality to it that is inescapable. This is completely emphasized by the song's video, an amalgamation of '90s VHS throwback, art student film project, and absurdest horror melding together into a demented form of self-referencing camp. Yet Frena is not doing anything insincere, and instead of trying to avoid this, Born Gold channels it, making the asymmetrical beats, almost morbid lyrics, and twisted visual component in "Hunger" feel as honest as possible.





Links:

Born Gold's Website
Pre-order soon here, I Am an Exit here, from Chill Mega Chill Records