Los Angeles artist SIDE DÆŸÆŸR (a.k.a. Keveen Baudouin of CARRÉ) and French singer/songwriter Darta La (the project of Florian Larriveau) might be on two different continents, but that didn’t stop the pair from creating the immensely transcendent collaborative album Time Kills Flowers. Mutual discoveries of their music lead them to muse on the similarities of their unabashed and sonically raw expressions. So they decided to piece together a long-distance album together, each of them writing six songs on their own before reuniting to record it all. The result is a collection of 12 songs that run a gauntlet of doom, anxiety, and longing that overflow from the album’s at-times lo-fi, at-times volatile soundtrack.
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Time Kills Flowers opens gently enough with two sprawling and melancholic strolls through the duo’s lilting acoustics. The first, “Five Years,” grows from a soft plucking of guitar strings into a crescendoing surge of hazy electronic tones and Baudouin’s tired but earnest cries; while “Ballade” finds Larriveau weaving his dreamy introspections through a garden of resounding twangs and their wailing harmonies. “Maybe I could right my wrongs, but I prefer to turn them to songs,” he sings wryly.”
Throughout the album, sardonic humor tempers the pair’s sometimes eviscerating dives into themselves and the world around them. On “How This Feeling” they saunter atop an elastic melody back and forth from the doctor’s office, struggling with the absurd catch-22 of being prescribed pills that only make them more and more paranoid and anxious; or the laid-back psych-rock romancer “Cocaine to Me.”
Amidst the smashing cymbals of the rollicking “Weird Game,” they dip a bit more into the surreal as Larriveau sings about this eponymous game that eerily resembles life. As the sidewinding melody carries his buoyant vocals to completion the whole track explodes under the crush of drums and fiery riffs — while all the while he howls some sage advice: “Don’t be an asshole, don’t mess up your soul.”
Other standouts on the album include the lugubrious ballad “Karen” and the jaunty “Busted.” The record ends with its title track “Time Kills Flowers,” which fades the album out on a wispily bittersweet medley of shuddering rhythms that eventually swells before breaking into a soft nothingness. Serving as one last profound reminder of what the pair’s incisive lyricism and beautiful guitar work can accomplish.
Visit SIDE DÆŸÆŸR on their Bandcamp and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Keep up with Darta La on Bandcamp and Instagram!
Words: Steven Ward
Listen to Time Kills Flowers the new album from SIDE DÆŸÆŸR and Darta La below!
