The Answer Is Always Yes

Album review

Bridges can be underrated, if not outright ignored or forgotten, in modern pop music. But Australian artist Alex Lahey approaches them as marvels of engineering, there to not only buttress a song but take it from one place to the next along the most scenic, sonically glorious route possible. She builds one up via soft-loud dynamics on "Congratulations," a slice of aughts-era indie rock joy about hating that you still care about an ex who’s moved on: "There's no mistaking/ That I'm shaken/ By your lightning/ Change of heart/ And my obsessing/ Means regressing." The bridge is pretty and bittersweet—like a pivotal movie scene that shows the main character has had a change of heart—on "The Sky Is Melting." The folky "Permanent" erupts into a grand, strings-propelled emo bridge reminiscent of Electric Owls, and Lahey’s Aussie accent comes through strong on lines like "I am at home on my own/ Wishing that I wasn't alone/ But I've been here before/ Playing the same three fucking chords"— then mocks herself with some gingerly strumming. There is no denying the similarities between Lahey and fellow Aussie Courtney Barnett on that track as well as the conversational speak-sung verses and jagged guitar honk of the excellent "Good Time," but on the latter Lahey gleefully makes the decision to run toward the kind of big, layered pop-radio chorus Barnett typically resists. Indeed,  Lahey knows her way around a big power-pop chorus, like on the giddy "You’ll Never Get Your Money Back" (written with Jenny Owen Youngs and Jess Abbott of Now, Now, it sound like Lahey is having the time of her life) and the insistent, Sahara Hot Nights-esque pogo-punk of "On the Way Down." (Credit due, too, to producer Jacknife Lee, known for glossy work with U2, the Killers and Snow Patrol.) "Shit Talkin'" is both a soap bubble of Cheap Trick-worthy ’70s power pop and a misanthrope’s lament ("You know, the thing about seeing people/ Is deciding what you want them to see/ Will they wish that I could stay forever/ Or will they want me to leave … I bet you when they're on their own/ They're shit talkin' all the way home"). "They Wouldn't Let Me In" packs in a slinky groove, hyperactive beat and careening guitar that takes a sharp New Wave turn, creating a Paramore song that might be better than anything on Paramore’s last record. Gentle and tentative, closer "The Answer Is Always Yes" plays like it’s on the brink before the ground gives way and the song opens in a big, chaotic, beautiful bride of revelation: "I don’t want it all to be the way before it changed." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz