Lilac Boy, one of the many artistic projects of the talented Astrid Star, put out their tenth full-length album Dissident Blue on January 13, 2024. The LP, a ten-track, 26-minute-long experience, is Star’s last album before taking a hiatus as Lilac Boy. While fans are devastated that they won’t be working on new music under the Lilac Boy name for the time being, Star shows that they are cooking up some promising work under different names through the songs on the haunting Dissident Blue.
The album is themed to sea creatures, the ocean, and drowning, something reflected in several track titles– the album opens and closes with songs named “Cannonball!” and “Splash,” respectively. As is typical for Lilac Boy, the album is firmly rooted in atmospheric, hypnagogic pop sounds, which suits the themes perfectly. However, unlike her usual drone production, Star went for something very different.
The sounds of Dissident Blue are very difficult to explain without comparing the experience to drowning. The hypnagogic elements act as a muffled base, while Star’s vocals and guitar take the forefront. Some fans have likened it to video game original soundtracks like Earthbound, but it sounds more akin to psychological horror visual novel soundtracks.
The synth sounds and dreamlike, muffled background blur the lines of reality, feeling like whispers echoing in a water-logged skull, much like the odd synth score of the visual novel Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~. What overpowers that with a near visceral desperation is Star’s vocals, supported by a guitar much like the ballads in the game Gore Screaming Show.
Combining these two distinct genre sounds makes for weirdly catchy melodies and a very unique noisecore experience. When visiting the album with headphones, the music engulfs the listener in an eerily intimate way, and feels like being submerged underwater.
The tracks that perhaps best exemplify this are “Boops Boops” and “Wet Lung.” They act as the eighth and ninth songs on the tracklist and are loaded with anxious lyrics.
Break-in
“Wet Lung”
Hiding
Caught me
Hanged
Miso, chewy, tender, space
Intra, modal, verted, trace
My soul, catch me, drifting, out
Reaving, mental, passing, out
Both tracks have the clash between odd synth backing tracks and Star’s strained vocals, made gritty by the noise production. But this works excellently for the album, especially on the tracks closest to its finale. Dissident Blue is an experience not only due to how it emulates the experience of drowning but also because the experience is relayed through the narrative and slow spiral into true madness as seen in the aforementioned tracks.
The most notable track on the album is “Hawksbill Odyssey.” It is a departure from Star’s typical style as Lilac Boy and seems to be hinting at her plans to make a fully acoustic album now that Lilac Boy is on hiatus. The lyrics match the album thematically, a ballad inspired by the hawksbill sea turtle. The acoustic guitar reverberates with Star’s soft vocals, getting fans excited to see how they would approach an album of this nature.
As the album sadly comes to a close, putting a pause on Lilac Boy’s unmatched creative output for the time being, the closing song “Splash” begins and ends with the sound of bubbles under the water, sinking the listener in silence much like the unforgiving black depths of the sea. Unsurprisingly, fans ate the album up, drowning themselves with odes to the ocean and its inhabitants. It feels like Star’s most realized conceptual album to date, and will certainly withstand the test of time because of the distinctive style they went for with it.
Dissident Blue can be streamed on all major music platforms, including Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music. While Lilac Boy may not have more slated for this year, Star has a lot of plans for 2024 that will keep fans happy.
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