Marie Davidson & l’Œil Nu - Persona

  • Marie Davidson's new band hits its stride on a three-pronged shoegaze EP inspired by Carl Jung.
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  • The new EP from Marie Davidson & l’Œil Nu (with new member Jesse Osborne-Lanthier) has a heavy concept with a surprisingly breezy execution. It features three versions of "Persona," meant to reflect the different ways you can project yourself to the world. Fittingly, it refigures Davidson's new-ish band as a shoegaze outfit, then a post-rock band and then something resembling the dreamy '90s heights of Saint Etienne. The regular version, which sounds a bit like Davidson jumped on a Slowdive song, is my favourite, where roaring fuzz does battle with epic guitar riffs. Though this kind of shoegaze will always be en vogue, there's something about the arena-sized guitar that pushes it away from detached and towards anthemic, as Davidson sings (in French) about inverting Jung's idea that the persona is a mask you put on to face the world. Here, the persona is something she can't escape from, that she can't control: "Persona / When will you let me sleep? / Persona / I want to leave." Davidson sounds out each word carefully, her phrasing mirrored by the ebb and flow of guitars and a killer breakbeat breakdown. It's easily the band's best song yet. The "Interlude" version focuses on a simple loop of guitar and voice, taking away all the fuzz for something that sounds like it could have come out on Rough Trade in the mid-'80s—and once the hypnotic drum beat comes, you can imagine it making a psychedelic DJ tool in between house tracks. "Persona BB," which closes Persona out, floats on a chunky breakbeat and seismic basslines. These provide a different kind of cushion than the layered gauze of the original, with chirpy synths that changing the mood of the original into something more upbeat, calling into question the real intent and meaning behind the lyrics. It's a neat trick that plays on the central conceit of the record without getting too intellectual, and it doubles as a pretty sweet pop song, too, highlighting a whole new potential for Davidson's unlikely indie rock troupe.
  • Tracklist
      01. Persona 02. Persona (Interlude) 03. Persona
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