one's not enough

One’s Not Enough
Femme Fatality
Stickfigure Recordings



Without explicitly promoting a drug lifestyle, One’s Not Enough is indeed enough to make anyone want to begin leading an alternative, counter-culture mode de vie. The album opens powerfully with “Lucky Lover,” a modern-day disco anthem that sounds like a toss-up between NIN and Daft Punk. While heavily influenced by electro-pop sounds, Femme Fatale is fully endowed with other musical textures and flavors. The track “Come On, Come Out” has a late 80’s new wave sound coupled with a lyrical base not unlike Strummer’s protesting voice in The Clash.

Another impressive feature of this group is their incomparable energy which is diffused through the entire album in catchy, upbeat and tweaked-out electronic rhythms. The title track explodes with hyped-up musical fervor that would intimidate the faint of heart.

The album takes a darker turn near the end of the album; the song “Don’t Kill for Me” contemplates murder, death, and the unmistakeable moment where a life fades away. The final track talks about the pain of fame and the price of notoriety in a way that is honest and lyrically insightful.

Eye Contact
E.S.L



E.S.L’s debut album Eye Contact is a fantastical, muscial-theatrical type hybrid that seems to bridge together the innocence of black and white films with modern day anxieties.

The album opens with a rhythmically-driven track which is backed up by earthy cellos chanting in a catchy gusto melody. Following this sound, the album takes a more soulful, heartfelt turn at “Side by Side” where singer Marta Jacubek-McKeever’s vocal ache resonates alongside the melancholic violin arrangement. However, this album possesses more than just a simple juxtaposition between innocence and heartache, as it ventures into musical dramas and swing melodies. Duffy Driediger of Ladyhawk samples his lyrical talent in “Like a Hurricane,” giving the album a sweet touch of masculinity amongst a plethora of lush strings. Marta indulges her Polish ancestry with “Czarne Oczy,” creating a campy, foreign-like sound that makes you want to dance around a campfire and howl at the moon. Still not random enough? The quartet completes the album with all-girl cover of Beastie Boy’s classic song “Girls.” This fact alone should inspire immediate respect for the Vancouver group.

Retrospectively, Eye Contact seems like the kind of albumv that would have existed if transcendental musicians Bjork and Elsiane combined with the 90’s swing band the Squirrel Nut Zippers would have sounded like, but in a black and white film from the 30’s.