A Love You Cannot Shake [Red Vinyl LP]

Listening to Fashion Club's self-produced second album ALove You Cannot Shake feels like being caught in the crossfireof a profound beam of light. You can't help but feel bothenlivened and exposed as it's aberrant synth lines, artful stringsand disfigured guitars swell into larger-than-life crescendos,which evoke a divine yet probing spotlight.Pascal Stevenson, the Los Angeles-based musician behindFashion Club, likens the experience of hearing A Love YouCannot Shake to staring into the sun, and though the recordwasn't written with religion in mind, it's heavenly sonics andemotional sagacity also make it feel like a prophetic encounter.The album was shaped by Stevenson's gender transition andsobriety journey and parses her fluid emotions surroundingthese events and other personal trials and tribulations. But asmuch as it's a dialogue between Stevenson's current andformer selves, it's also an invitation for listeners to join her inthe work of discarding bitterness and re-centering hope,especially when such efforts feel futile. Musically, A Love YouCannot Shake is an unshackling of expectations, asStevenson's previous stint as bassist in the L.A. post-punkoutfit Moaning and her first record as Fashion Club, 2022'sScrutiny, didn't necessarily reflect the full range of her taste,which includes ambient, pop, classical and dance music, orembody her sensitive tenderness and femininity.A Love You Cannot Shake also thrives on a fluid sonic palette.The album's magnetic immersiveness hinges on it's strangedynamic shifts, jagged production and ambitious songstructures with parts that don't repeat-choices influenced byher love of left-field electro-pop and her classical musicbackground. While Stevenson handled most of theinstrumentals on Scrutiny, this LP is much more collaborative,featuring an array of contributors who lent strings, piano, pedalsteel and more. Plus, this album boasts country harmoniesfrom Perfume Genius ("Forget"), high-pitched coos from JaySom ("Ghost") and gauzy whispers from Julie Byrne ("RottenMind"). Stevenson's vocal evolution is also on display with thisrecord, embracing a softer delivery that's more reflective of herpersonality and identity