Arriving in early September, Filters, the new album from Bayonne, finds Roger Sellers (joined here by drummer Matt Toman), building on the mournful yet pop-minded sound of 2023’s Temporary Time. Across ten tracks, Sellers blends polished synth-pop, acoustic warmth, ambient textures and subtle melancholy into an immersive record that explores grief, acceptance and finding a way forward.
The album consists of ten tracks, with the opening Unexpected also being, unusually for an opener, the second-longest track on the record. From the very beginning, it makes it clear that this is going to be a smooth and beautifully polished listen. Sellers’ voice is the main thing that stands out – equally smooth, clean and incredibly precise. I also really enjoy the subtle ambient field recordings scattered throughout the track, adding another layer to the arrangement. The melody has a gentle melancholic quality and keeps circling back beautifully before the song eventually dissolves into synths wrapped in an electronic-pop atmosphere.
The electronic pop continues on Good Enough, which has a strong ’80s feel. What I particularly like, though, is how precise and delicate everything sounds. It never becomes aggressive or overproduced; instead, it remains incredibly smooth and inviting, making it an effortless listen.
The third track, Remedies, is much more playful and mischievous, reminding me at times of Tune-Yards or some of Arcade Fire’s more exuberant moments. It is an instrumentally fun and unpredictable track, but my highlight of the first half is definitely Gamut. It opens with an excellent piano motif before developing into a fantastic melody that occasionally evokes Tame Impala. Sellers, as already mentioned, has a truly outstanding voice. I particularly enjoy the subtle melancholy in his delivery, combined with the strong melodic quality of his vocals.
That sense of melancholy connects directly to the central theme of the album. Filters finds Sellers entering a new phase of existence as he works through the grief of losing his father and gradually moves toward acceptance. This theme becomes particularly tangible on Multiphase, in which Sellers recalls a series of strange voicemails his mother received in the weeks following his father’s death.
“When I think about the actual concept of this record in terms of acceptance and grieving, ‘Multiphase’ encapsulates that for me,” Sellers explains. “Weeks after my dad passed away, my mom kept getting these weird voicemails that were unexplainable. It was a recording that I had made for my mom years ago for Mother’s Day. I was playing my ukulele, and I think I gave it to my parents on a CD or something. It was just bizarre. How would anybody even get this? And then she would try to send it to me over email, and then it would just be, like, nothing. There would be no sound.”
The second half begins with the strongly ’80s-influenced, heavily electronic Oxygen. It sounds as if it could have been lifted straight out of the 1980s and gives me a strong GTA: Vice City vibe. With summer coming to an end, I’m probably enjoying it slightly less than I would have at the beginning of the season, but it is nevertheless an incredibly precise and well-produced track.
Forget is somewhat more melancholic, and here I can hear another influence in Bayonne’s music: Enya. There is something distinctly ethereal about the track, creating a sense of weightlessness and otherworldliness, even though it operates in a very different musical context.
I really love the field recordings that open Alone For Now. The song gradually builds, becoming even more expansive around the halfway point, carried by an energetic, almost motorik beat. The overall atmosphere is euphoric, making this another highlight for me. I particularly enjoy the way Bayonne approaches synth-pop from this slightly more exploratory angle, rather than going completely “in your face” as on Oxygen. At the same time, the contrast between these two approaches makes both tracks more interesting.
The final two tracks begin with January, the longest song on the album. January opens with a wonderfully warm, late-summer-feeling riff, accompanied by what sounds like a slide guitar. I absolutely love the vocal performance here, with another beautiful melody that occasionally reminds me of Elton John’s biggest hits. There is something wonderfully ’70s about the whole track. As the longest song on the record, January feels like the emotional core of the album, eventually drifting into a beautiful ambient outro.
The closing Everything’s Alright surprises with a piano riff that feels instantly familiar, while its melody occasionally reminds me of Fleet Foxes. As the shortest track on the album, it brings the record to a pleasant conclusion, leaving you with the feeling that you will want to take this journey again before too long.
This review was made possible by SubmitHub
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