Hi, everyone. Backthony Offtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Oklou album, choke enough.

Here we have the new debut album from French pop artist, Oklou, and you could say this project has been a long time coming. Yes, it is her first official full-length record, which is a very important first benchmark in any artist's career. But Oklou isn't just some random, fresh face. In fact, she has been making waves in the alternative pop scene, really since the release of her 2020 Galore mixtape.

But her output goes back even further than that if you count output that she's had under various pseudonyms and collaborations. In recent years, she's also appeared in some mixes and crossovers with the likes of AG Cook, Umru, Flume, Jane Remover. Combine that with the futuristic synthy spaced out production on this thing, no wonder Lou has been turning heads in the terminally online pop scene. I'm sure the features on this record from the likes of Bladee, as well as Underscores, has definitely helped, too.

So yeah, it does seem like, Oklou has been keeping good creative company and inspiring work with musicians that have a proven track record. So as a result, even though I was a little underwhelmed by the teasers in the lead up to this record, I pulled up excited to hear something great. But truth be told, I found the actual experience of this album to be even more boring, to the point where I'm mystified by the hype this record has mustard.

Now, I can't deny that the reference points are there for sure. In terms of the attention to detail going on with the production that calls back to older European trance and dance pop. Generally a lot of Y2K pop aesthetics, but much dreamier. But then on top of that, Oklou and her collaborators are combining this with almost a new age atmosphere and simplicity. There's something quiet and alien and robotic about Lou's lead vocals throughout this record, too, which reminds me of many PC Music artists over the years, as this album, at least on some level, feels like it was consciously created to be a relic of a bygone era or something.

So again, I can see where the inspiration on this album is coming from, or at least where it's trying to go emotionally. But the actual experience of listening to this album, it just across like a pop half measure.

Because while the vibes are there, every sound, musical idea, piece of instrumentation, and vocal passage throughout this album feels like it's been fine-tuned to be as inoffensive and as unmemorable as possible, really doing anything to avoid grabbing your attention. Because there's not really a whole lot of moments on this record, genuinely, that make much of a splash or stand out. I mean, the chunky drum beat that serves as the backbone for the closing track on this LP is just about the boldest sound this album has to offer for its 35-minute run time.

Still, though, I will commend, at least on some level, the aesthetic consistency throughout this album. There is definitely a direction it's heading in between the muted drum sequences and relaxed synths and really breathy understated vocals, which again are highly processed, but still the end result doesn't leave much of an impression. And what worsens that is that the song structures are pretty meager a lot of the time, too. They're either far too repetitive or so fleeting and short-winded that they don't stick around for long enough to really develop on any of their ideas. And attempts at doing so, like the final moments of "ict", just end up sounding like a chaotic mess.

I feel like the closest comparison or sensation this album comes to achieving is like that of a bite-sized Enya. We have the oceanic pop vibes with all the space and smooth textures, but without the length and layers and bright melodic glitter to actually make it immersive, which leaves a lot of tracks on this record either feeling like a sorry excuse for an interlude or a dodgy pop song laced with obscured vocals and muffled synth arpeggios, such as in the case of the title track, which honestly is a track that parades around as if it has somehow achieved genius by virtue of not amounting to anything more than a four-minute intro, as it doesn't really build up into anything significant or memorable at any point.

But yeah, overall, I'm very underwhelmed by this album. I do think it does scratch some ambient itches with a bit of a pop flair. But don't be surprised if you end up finding that it doesn't even really satisfy on that front, given that it fails to really extend its ideas or build upon them sonically enough to really make this a project you want to get lost in.

Again, it's not immersive, it's not contemplative, it's not striking, it's just wallpaper, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 4 on it.

Anthony Fantano. Oklou. Forever.