What does Torres sound like?

Chonky, striding, beefy alt-rock anthems.

The review of ‘What an Enormous Room’ by Torres

It is always a joy to hear a new Torres album because no two albums have the same vibe. After the artistic and watery ‘Silver Tongue’, Torres veered to trashing primal romance with the sludgy ‘Thirstier’. The two were polar opposites and with this new album, we’re veering into cinematic kooky rock. This album is all about large, excessive sounds booming out of your speakers. This is an album designed like a blowout.

That excess comes in different forms. Opening with ‘Happy man’s shoes’ we have a strident, confident track glistening in retro organs. They slide and shimmer over guitar strums of intent and spoken word bridges. There is a hint of St Vincent’s ‘Daddy’s Home’ but it’s less grounded in 70s psychedelic production. We then hit alien spaghetti western rock with ‘Life as we don’t know it’. In less than two minutes Torres works in a wild descent into chaos as every riff and instrument trickles down a note scale like a black hole. The feverish vocals crank up the tension and it is the most playful track I’ve heard Torres produce in years. Even acoustic ballads like ‘I got the fear’ can’t escape excess. Despite the delicate vocal and acoustic guitar delivery, a bass-blown drum beat hammers the song into submission.

With big noise and big moods dominating the album, sometimes the meandering riffs feel intentionally like they are avoiding standard chord progressions. ‘Wake to flowers’ uses long single strums to wail out into oblivion like a defiant stand against power chords. ‘Ugly mystery’ is bass-led instead and feels like lots of smaller 8-bar thoughts strung together like a musical puzzle. Neither of these tracks have landed with me yet but when I listen to the album end to end, they fit nicely into a wider narrative. It isn’t until ‘Collect’ that Torres slams a gritty and grizzly power chord anthem. Repeating the remarks “Did I hit a nerve?” and “I’m here to collect”, it’s as if all that open space for the big noise was a trap. Now the void has been sucked dry by the direct sharpness of the vocals, the chords, the production – unified in a three-minute demand. It’s powerful and a killer single.

Whilst the room is enormous, most of the songs aren’t. ‘Artificial limits’ is the exception, clocking in at six minutes. After an album of quick-fire bullets, this sumptuous organ-laced dirge bubbles away like a meditation. When placed alongside the uplifting ‘Jerk into joy’ and its sunny demeanour, the two sell a narrative about taking the best opportunities from any situation. Clearly, Torres likes a proper boogie too given the spoken word interludes. I have an aversion to spoken word in rock songs but this falls just about on the right side of my cringeometer.

This album is a largely optimistic and upbeat one and ‘Forever home’ sings of becoming your own and owning your name. The skittish guitars and firm vocal landings really sell the energy that the subject brings. The closing track ‘Songbird forever’ is a simple love song with piano notes ringing out like church bells in a generative software patch. Guitars crackle and atonally warble underneath with birdsong and fresh synths washing out the sound. It’s a lovely outro to what is a highly dynamic and expressive album.

Uplifting, affirming and brimming with confidence, ‘What an enormous room’ is an album full of heart. What it lacks in immediacy, it makes up for in-depth and replayability. At the end of the track ‘Life as we don’t know it’ there is a wild triumphant “YEAH!” shouted with abandonment and glee. I feel like the majority of this album channels that nailed it vibe in different ways. In short, this album collects.

Recommended track: Collect

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