City of Clowns [White LP] in Bloomington, MN

Marie Davidson
scored her biggest club hit (and earned a Grammy nomination) with the
Soulwax
remix of her cheeky ode to the pursuit of success, "Work It." She moved away from club music with
Renegade Breakdown
, a full-length with her trio
L'¿il Nu
, which explored jazz, folk, rock, and cinematic influences, prefaced with a spoken warning that "there are no moneymakers on this record."
City of Clowns
, co-produced by
and released on their
Deewee
label, sounds like the logical sequel to "Work It" and
Working Class Woman
, as if
never happened.
Davidson
is back to doing snarky monologues over throbbing electro-techno, mixing self-deprecation with self-assurance, and ultimately letting no one get the best of her. She pointedly decides "If I'd really have to choose, I'd rather be me than you" on "Sexy Clown," and gets downright vicious on the anxiety-ridden "Push Me Fuckhead" and both versions of "Y.A.M.M." Aside from clubby tracks like these, there are more experimental ones which venture into new directions. Opener "Validations Weight" has lush, almost ambient jungle synth washes and booming trap kicks, along with a more robotic style of sci-fi narration. "Statistical Modelling" is closer to Detroit-style electro, surging forward through a neon skyline while a fragment about "data streams" repeats low in the mix. "Contrarian" embraces several styles of late-'90s full-throttle dance music, mixing pounding kickdrums and rattling breakbeats with acid trance synths. "Unknowing" is a confounding yet fascinating flurry of knotty, sporadic beats and scrambled vocals, with a pounding groove gradually emerging. Channeling technological paranoia,
contains some of
's most futuristic work yet, as well as some of her most commanding and personality-driven. ~ Paul Simpson