hello folks! for this week’s Weekly Review, we’re looking at Demonology, from Candi Carpenter!
i would be lying if i said this record didnt appeal primarily to me from a lyrical standpoint. Demonology is an extremely clean package from Candi Carpenter that, across the record, processes trauma and the pains of coming of age by comparing then to the supernatural and the occult. the opener and functional thesis statement, Exorcist, says it best with the chorus – “I need more than a therapist / I need an exorcist”. Cult, the follow up, deals specifically with religious trauma as does Everybody Goes to hell. Skinny focuses on the ways that social pressures can drive folks to unhealthy behaviors like eating disorders. my intro to the record was Nervous System, a track about anxiety, and songs like Novels About Vampires and Tooth death with relationships throughout the singer’s life. a lot of the experiences described here mirror my own, of dealing with the impacts of religion and social influences and untangling those as you try to figure out what kind of person exists underneath them – this is a fairly honest and open record from the outset, but this particular read of coming of age in the modern american landscape hits close to my own experiences. the song that feels the most mixed to me is Everybody Goes to Hell – i think the sentiment is solid, and the closing parts of the track are extremely moving, where Carpenter speaks plainly over the outro, but there’s a nitpicky part of me that cant drop the idea that the concept of hell itself isnt universal enough, but it works well enough because the intended recipients would get the intention hefe.
but like, Carpenter absolutely brings the bops here to help some of the weightier themes go down easier. Antisocial Butterfly turns social anxiety into a anthem, Cult turns what is honestly an accurate and incredibly weighty observation into a poppy and glib track, and Nervous System has been in my constant rotation for a few weeks because its a bit of ear worm. Strawberry Starburst, a song about processing same sex attraction, dips into pop punky musical conventions and i really dig the chorus here. Carpenter’s performance here is extremely strong – their singing voice moves well between both the folkier and pop punkier segments of the album and the varied emotional beats. they shift easily, for example, between the raw emotional ending of Tooth to the tongue in cheek Serial Killer – Serial Killer’s bridge functions as a peek behind the humor, and Carpenter’s voice delivers that undercut perfectly. Back From the Dead is absolutely dripping with malice over a manipulative relationship where someone abused a position of power.
faves – Cult, Antisocial Butterfly, Strawberry Starburst, Nervous System, Serial Killer, Memento Mori
dislikes –
Demonology – 9/10
the recommended queue is still empty, so we’ll be taking another break from the Weekly Review! i’ll check back next Friday to see if any submissions have been made and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.