Album Review: Music for the Long Emergency, Polica and Stargaze

Poliça’s collaboration with Berlin orchestral collective Stargaze is a psychic scream set to strings. Consider 10-minute single ‘How Is This Happening’, the lyrics for which were put together in a matter of hours by singer Channy Leaneagh on November 9, 2016 – the morning after Donald Trump claimed the White House.

As expression of slow-burn shock the song is simultaneously chilling and balming. You hear Leaneagh working through an out-of-body experience in real time, as Stargaze’s gently swooping strings cosset the shock and anger.

Here and elsewhere the album seems to take the slightly worrying perspective that there can be comfort in numbness. The crepuscular ‘Fake Like’ blends Banshee-on-downers coos from the frontwoman with gently lapping tempos, the tension building and building but never quite going off. More fraught is ‘Marrow’, where Leaneagh’s treated vocals fight a tumult of noise – the apocryphal sound of an orchestra having a nervous breakdown.

Yet there’s hope amid the disquiet. The title track drifts from frayed-nerves chamber-pop to dreamy, cloud-grey fade-out. The end times may be knocking at our door but sometimes the best path to resistance is to carry on as if the world is still spinning. That’s a powerful message – one Music For The Long Emergency articulates with cool ferocity.
OUT FEBRUARY 16

Rating: 8/10