CD Review: Sweet Electra's "When We Abandoned Earth"

Sweet Electra got their start in Mexico, but you’d never know it. The electro-pop concocted by the New York-via-Guadalajara duo carries not a whiff of south-of-the-border flavor.

Their latest album, When We Abandoned Earth, does walk with a worldly air though. Its subtle beats and subdued synthesizers sound almost European, like if Tiësto produced a chill-out album. DJ/producer Giovanni Escalera pulls sounds from all over the globe to create his rhythms. The techno blips on “Give Up (Part 1)” sounds like a Scandinavian rave in slow motion while the scratchy violin on “It’s Over” whisks you away to an eastern-European gypsy campfire.

Nardiz Cooke’s singing holds it all together, simultaneously sounding both intimate and far away. “Today I feel I don’t want to be a part of something,” she sings in “A Feeling” and that sense of withdrawal permeates the album. “Backyard” sees her crying into the void for an identity. When she breaks up with a guy in “It’s Over,” it sounds more like she’s breaking up with a part of herself.

The most powerful tracks are those in which she says nothing at all. The spacey echo of her voice is at its most haunting without lyrics to constrain it, sounding like someone who’s given up trying to explain. On standout track “I Am,” her wordless wails throw a little Ireland into the melting pot, lilting along like Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan.

Sweet Electra prove that global sensibilities needn’t be shoved in the listener’s face (I’m looking at you M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend). Though Escalera and Cooke incorporate a multinational spectrum of sounds, their quiet electro-pop remains instantly accessible. When We Abandoned Earth is not a lesson in the diversity of world music. It’s a lesson in its unity.

Review: 4 stars (out of 5)