Call it love

"Briana Marela's third album Call It Love punches harder than any of the airy, effervescent synth pop she's released before, but her newly energetic beats and surging arpeggios still frame the same gentle vocalizations that have marked her work to date. She originally intended the album to have two distinct halves, an ambient side and a pop side, with corresponding "sister songs." Instead, she melded the two together; drones and echoes float under her drum patterns and multi-tracked vocal hooks, resulting in a work that can paradoxically feel agitated and sedate in the same moment".

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"With the aid of co-producers Ryan Heyner and Juan Pieczanski from synth pop group Small Black, she moves in the direction of a still less delicate, more percussive sound two years later on the follow-up, Call It Love ... The album's tendencies toward being a little more streamlined and more beat-driven may make it more accessible to the neutral listener, but it still offers unexpected turns, impulsive rhythmic flourishes, and plenty of quirky timbres to keep things interesting ("pool field recording," timpani, a plethora of keyboards and synths, and even "ladder" are among the instrument credits). The giddy quality may stick more than do individual songs, but they succeed in capturing some of the wooziness of new love".

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