Outlands - Love Is As Cold As Death (2014)

The album is a departure from the reverb-soaked vocals and warped disco samples of Outlands’ 2012 Crash Symbols/Chill Mega Chill “In Times Like These There Are No Boundaries.

” While the EP’ s aesthetic was desolate and cold, complete by a cover of Marianne Faithfull’s “Broken English,” Love is as Cold as Death pushes the concept as one that can still be conveyed in clean production, carefully constructed beats, and deceptively complex pop songs that became an homage to the 90s for the band. The duo constructed a list of sonic influences while recording: late 80s and early 90s RnB, the Fairlight heavy records of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, and trip hop, especially Lamb, Massive Attack, and Tricky. Lyrically, the album muses on themes as diverse as religious devotion, place, obsessive love, and political discourse. “Politics” draws on George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language for content, “Chrome” connects the recent papal conclave with Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, and “Reproduction” challenges ideas of maps and home.

Tracklist:

1. Politics
2. Reproduction
3. Warm Winds
4. Someone To Hold You In The Dark
5. Devout
6. Chrome
7. Love Is As Cold As Death
8. New Reptiles