Album Review: Toronto’s Dilettante channel the eighties with an effervescent pop theatricality in their buoyant self titled debut album.

Dilettante‘s self-titled album is a shimmering collection of pure pop vignettes – leaved by a self-deprecatory sense of humour and drama (see the theatrical posturings of fifties-influenced ‘Donna’) but with a common thread of colossal, indelible melodies and mountain high anthems.

Touched as all good pops songs are by hints of melancholia, the synth beds create something enveloping and the intertwined vocals of Natalie Panacci and Julia Wittmann float and glide over the crystalline sounds. Track such as ‘Stay’ have celestial, euphoric choruses while ‘Blue’ show that band can do restraint and atmosphere in a brooding, slow burning ballad that slowly explodes. ‘Tom’ has the stop/start, quiet/loud ethos typically found in band like The Pixies with an operatic vocal delivery that is bod and dramatic.

‘Connie’ puts on display the band’s ability to inject humour over a liquid, funky bass line and saxophone highlights.

Final track, the single ‘Monster’, detailing the harsh realities of relationships and regret, is another example of the dynamism Dilettante is capable of: a fast paced piece of pure synth pop with a pacy video to accompany it. The sound is dramatic and cinematic with the kind of synth thrum found in a Cliff Martinez soundtrack mixed in with M83 while the lyrics fume and burn with the intensity of a scorned lover.

Drummer Bradley Connor, bassist Zachary Stuckey, and keyboardist Candice Ng complete the line up in an album that is a refreshing blast of pop magic. The album sparkles and crackles with an incandescent pop fervour that is utterly satisfying.

You can download ‘Dilettante’ here or through the link below.