TT - Lovelaws

When Warpaint first emerged back in 2010 with exquisite debut ‘The Fool’, it was the quartet’s hypnotic interweaving melodies that immediately lifted them above the pack. An eight-limbed animal, theirs was a sound that was all about action and reaction, their members deftly batting rhythms between each other, twisting in a graceful sonic dance. Without her other three foils, you’d be forgiven for fearing that guitarist Theresa Wayman’s solo debut as TT would lack some of the seductive charm of her main band.

Instead, ‘LoveLaws’ sounds, well, very much like a Warpaint album tbh. This is, of course, no bad thing. Existing in a perpetual nocturnal half-light, the likes of the dreamy, doomy ‘Take One’ and its cries of “the fear has kept me close”, or more electronic, undulating opener ‘Mykki’ (like the soft underside to Zola Jesus’ emotive industrialism) feel familiar yet riddled with something slightly sadder. Themes of loneliness and doomed romance pepper the likes of ‘Love Leaks’, but it’s not just there in the strained laments (“I feel like we fucked up/ Feel like we lost our love”), it’s all over the record’s downbeat tempos and often claustrophobic, breathless production.

Stepping away from her bandmates, ‘LoveLaws’ is an even more personal exploration of TT’s affective talents.