The 14-track
into a pretty room
is the fourth album by the experimental indie pop project
lots of hands
but the first one to find it operating as a duo. Over the course of prior releases, English musician
Billy Woodhouse
learned tools of manipulation like sampling, distortion, and looping, which he employed on a combination of electronic instrumentals, bittersweet songcraft, and a suggested slowcore influence, highlighting each of these to varying degrees depending on the release. For this,
'
Fire Talk Records
debut, he and onetime music-program classmate
Elliot Dryden
utilized all the above while emphasizing structured songs with no shortage of otherworldly sounds. The album was recorded in
Woodhouse
's home studio in Newcastle. They ease us through the portal to their warped world with a fractured yet gentle two-minute intro, "alive," that features piano, layered vocal utterances, and a looped reedy timbre before launching into the driving "barnyard." That song's melancholy indie pop/rock distorts both vocals and ambient atmospheres while remaining rooted in traditional instrumentation. Lyrics, in the meantime, consist of recurring slightly unnerving phrases like "I cannot go where the men go/Outside of the pen, though" and "I'll brush your hair through a nightmare." The unearthly qualities continue on entries such as the lament-like "in b tween" (featuring
mage tears
), despite its minimalist arrangement; the electro-pastoral "the rain," with its whimsical, glitchy tones and finger-on-fretboard-like squeaks; and "run your mouth," an ambling song with relaxed guitar and unrelaxing electronic interjections as well as filtered vocals. Several songs here likewise tend toward the rustic side, with "masquerade" offering acoustic drums and something approximating pedal steel that cut through effects, and "backseat 30," which features banjo -- among many other sounds (including fuzzy guitar) by the end. The instrumental "helen's song" brings listeners home on a soft landing, with its piano and woodwinds sounding degraded by a few degrees but otherwise undisturbed, save for some creepy background noise (on a close listen). If this all sounds like a lot, it's a strangely comforting album in spite of its relentless trippiness, and one that not only withstands but rewards repeat listens. ~ Marcy Donelson