Album review: Siiickbrain – HOUNDSTOOTH

When she announced her second album, Siiickbrain declared that she had finally located the sound she had been chasing ever since she started making music. Even on 2023 debut My Masochistic Mind, she was subtly inching towards the sort of shadowy, electronic-driven sound that’s crawled out of a basement with sweat-coated walls. There’s no denying that Caroline Miner Smith thoroughly knows herself and what she wants from her music. The vision is clear, but the execution is muddier.

Music like this should feel intoxicating and magnetic, but Siiickbrain’s beats don’t quite manage this. Dominated by buzzing synths and the snap and click of electronic percussion, the album often sounds oddly thin and lacks variety. Sometimes, these songs go from A to B on one inky, vodka-soaked road without reaching an ignition point.

Other times, its results are overwrought. There’s a crystal-clear determination behind a song like FLESH's pulsing, twisting beats and electric mystique, but its half-rapped, half-drawled chorus (‘Flesh / Feel / Sweat / Touch / Reject / Change / Obsess’) feels forced. PALO SANTO’s central hook ‘I always get what I want ’ gets beaten to death a bit and starts to grate, as does the droning synths and slurred vocals of FILTH, ‘Watch my eyes roll back when I pull up to the function.’

There are stronger moments scattered throughout. LOSER is easily the best song here, fusing its fizzing darkness with a club-ready chorus that has more musicality and emotion, with Siiiickbrain singing, ‘Maybe losing is a life hack / Lying on the train tracks / Hoping that I come back better’. Closer FAWN offers a similar switch-up, bigger in scope with a drilling beat contrasting the delicacy of her vocals.

In fact, it offers the impression that there’s potential behind Siiickbrain’s vision that’s perhaps not had the space to breathe yet. It means there’s hope for the future, but at this present moment, it’s sadly not lived up to expectation.

Verdict: 2/5

For fans of: Harpy, Mimi Barks, NOWHERE2RUN

HOUNDSTOOTH is released June 3 via Pale Chord / Rise