- Electro with a side of KoRn.
- Sometime in the last year, LSDXOXO went from salacious to self-conscious. Well, sort of. The first single from his long-awaited debut album, back in April, was something like emo electro, his deadpan talk-singing turned into earnest emo crooning. His personality carried made up for what he lacked in technical ability, and the second single, "Demons," is both more emo and more impressive. But maybe "emo" isn't the right reference point. Instead, his flinty, double-tracked vocals remind me of KoRn's Jonathan Davis—from a band never afraid to flirt with dance music—without the harsh, distorted parts.
As you might expect, the relatively simple instrumental is still loaded with clever flourishes: the breakbeats right before the chorus, the warbling pads that quiver behind the most vulnerable parts of LSDXOXO's vocal, even the way the thwacking electro beat captures the feeling of trying to fight through anxiety and doubt. The best moment comes when Eartheater (who also directed the track's stunning video), joins in, her voice offering a husky, bolder counterpart that cinches the track's pop ambitions. Like the pop-punk guitar of "DRaiN," "Demons" might take some getting used to for diehard techno fans. But coupled with the video, it represents a bold step into something new for an artist who always seemed too big, too personable to be constrained by one dance floor genre anyways.