Exploded View fail to entirely shine on Obey

The band’s self-titled 2016 debut acted as a confident initial release. Consisting of Anika, and Mexican producers, Martin Thulin, Hugo Quezada and Amon Melgarejo the group successfully stripped back the trappings of Anika’s solo work and doubled down on their unique ethereal sound to modest critical acclaim.

Enter 2018’s Obey, an album on which the band downsize to a three-piece whilst, in turn, preserving their unique sound. What becomes clear is that Obey is a much more amorphous album than their debut, with the record leaping bravely and dangerously across multiple themes during its 38-minute run time, a risk which doesn’t always pay off.

At its core, Obey looks to explore the duality between the waking world and the realm of dreams. Songs like "Lullaby" & "Letting go of Childhood Dreams", for example, are intimately bucolic & peaceful, with Anika’s haunting ethereal voice calling to the listener from an empire drenched in reverb.

There are also stand out tracks like "Raven Raven", quite simply one of band’s best, a tightly wound and carefully balanced song in which each of the three-piece is given appropriate scope to move.

However, it is when Exploded View decide to come back down to earth and explore reality in which the weaker elements of the album emerge. ‘Come on Honey’ is the greatest offender in this regard, a repetitive and ruthlessly overly produced song, it loses the mysticism that the band so effectively deliver during the first half of the album.

Obey explores the dichotomy between the dreams we feel and the reality we experience with mixed results. The album proves that Exploded View are at their best when they refuse to be constrained by reality, to listen to consensus or to obey, and instead, exist in the dazzling reverie of their collective dream.