Lighter than air: HOMESHAKE’S “Helium” deserves high praise

Five years ago, when he was just starting to make a name for himself and his band HOMESHAKE, Montreal-based artist Peter Sagar was best known as Mac Demarco’s guitarist. While Homeshake’s original sound drew inspiration from Mac Demarco’s slacker-rock approach, Homeshake has taken the past half decade to experiment with a musical genre that could be aptly described as an amalgam of chillwave, bedroom pop, and R&B. Enter Helium (2019): Homeshake’s fifth album that serves as his personal spin on lo-fi R&B. Coming in at 33 minutes, this album is chock full of white noise, bedroom pop, and soul. It is the perfect soundtrack for doing absolutely nothing. While less musically complex than his other albums, the production quality has certainly been taken up a notch.

The album starts in the most Homeshake way possible — the first track on the release, “Early,” is a minimalistic instrumental with occasional chimes, and a staggering and slowed progression of synths. That may be a reason why the transition to the following track “Anything at All” is so jarring. “Anything at All” is quite unlike Homeshake, and far more like what is to be expected at a dance club. Even so, it’s quite psychedelic, with an impressive guitar performance as Sagar begs for him and his lover to find connection outside of their phones and social media.

The next song on the album, “Like Mariah,” arrives onto the scene with a plucky bass melody that takes center stage. Throughout the album, Homeshake draws inspiration from ‘90s era R&B artists such as Sade or even Mariah Carey (to whom the track is dedicated). Homeshake uses the song as a space for him to vocalize his insecurities in regards to the capacity of his voice. The track, in a similar vein to “Anything at All,” starts out odd and sounds almost out of place on the album. In general, it seems Homeshake orders his album without any particular regard to how the transitions between songs will play out. For instance, “Like Mariah” would be a more pleasing follow-up to “Early” than “Anything at All.”

“Heartburn” is a song free of vocals that spans a little over 30 seconds. It operates under the same goal as “Early,” “Trudi and Lou,” and “Salu says Hi” (a track that encompasses two minutes of garbled speech resembling the word “Hello?” distorted over and over). These short instrumental tracks set the scene for Homeshake’s surreal world where time moves languorously and people act supinely. Left without any vocals to immerse themselves with, Homeshake’s listeners are forced to look inwardly and self-reflect until the instrumental track finishes.

“All Night Long” is downright haunting. It almost reminds me of — dare I say it — Soundcloud mumble rap. Homeshake’s vocals here are heavenly, nearly bordering saccharine territory. The gothic piano riff that encompasses the song is chilling to say the least. It’s also one of the most noticeable departures from Homeshake’s typical signature style of lazy, pared back beats.

“Just Like My” is Homeshake at his grooviest. Homeshake squeaks out the lyrics, “voice goes high like helium does (helium)” and you as the listener better believe it. “Just Like My” demonstrates Homeshake’s vocals at their absolute airiest. The track exposes the soft spot Homeshake holds in his heart for groove as he unleashes a bouncy beat and a tuneful brass, a soft spot that translates well to the following song “Nothing Could Be Better.” “Nothing Could Be Better” is rife with endearing lyrics as well as unforgettable sugary synth riffs that beg the listener to groove along.

“Other Than” demonstrates an interesting juxtaposition of musical layers within its introduction. There are two parts to the song: a siren-like ostinato as well as a slow beat. The lyrics are painful and melancholy, as Homeshake deals with inner demons that it seems only the touch of the one he loves could melt away. The track is hushed, and that’s what I love about it. It sounds like the morning after a hard night, with Homeshake trying to parse together his jumbled thoughts. It reminds me of the track “Okay” off of Homeshake’s album In The Shower. In a similar manner, the audio from the song swivels in and out of focus as Homeshake oozes out despairing lyrics.

“Another Thing” is less of a song and more of an experiment for Homeshake. Here, he goes wild with his synthesizer and peppers his song with bizarre lyrics. The song is introduced with simple drums and a keyboard. Around the song’s halfway mark, a dizzying arpeggio appears as Homeshake utters the words “another thing” ad nauseum.

“Couch Cushion” encounters solemn-sounding riffs layered amongst what appears to be gentle waves beating against a hypothetical shore. Here, Homeshake doesn’t sound quite too chipper. Fans of white noise will rejoice as nearly the entire second half of the track is a hollow sound. The track ends on an authentically ambient note as surrounding bedroom air can be heard in the background.

“Secret Track” is one of the best songs on the album. A sound resembling a metronome helps keep Homeshake grounded as he sings, while a gentle synth with alternating beats twinkles softly underneath the metronome. Homeshake sounds distant as he sings with his words nearly completely inaudible. Halfway into his track Homeshake’s voice ascends into the ethereal plane, as a compelling guitar riff arrives onto the scene. Perhaps this is a stretch, but this may be Homeshake’s ode to dream pop. Fans of Homeshake’s distorted low voice on select tracks from previous albums will rejoice because it appears here, too.

On Helium, Homeshake steps away from music that will generate mass appeal and experiments with sound in many different ways. This album contains a lot of white noise which, sometimes, does more harm than good. Oftentimes, the album falls short as a result of its emptiness. This is probably my least favorite Homeshake album, but perhaps I haven’t fully appreciated it yet. Even so, I applaud Homeshake for growing into his own sound. Helium is clearly a step in a new stylistic direction for Homeshake, as can be evidenced on experimental tracks such as “Anything At All.” If anything, Helium is a demonstration of the notion that Homeshake has carved out his own sound in the sometimes all too homogenous realm of indie music.

Article by Erika Badalyan