"There are familiar aspects on Puritan Themes, melodies that seem classic, as if existing at the edges of memory, as well as unexpected textures-sounds difficult to source, creating a narrative of sorts. There is darkness, too, though a darkness born more of awe and beauty than the fear of death, existing as nothing in nothingness. It's a travelogue, then, through the real world and the cosmic, interior world."
"As with all of Amos' output, the album is difficult to pigeonhole. There are bits of folk here, some alt-country there, both with a psychedelic edge-sounds reminiscent of 1970s Laurel Canyon. There's also the sense that a hip-hop producer worked on the album. Sounds get layered on top of each other, elements shift in the mix, a couple samples even show up in mid album tripshift on "Radio Seance.""
Puritan Themes features a lead single, "Chain Gang," imagined as if Cat Stevens had smoked a ton of salvia and taken a darker storytelling route. The album mixes familiar, memory-edged melodies with unexpected, hard-to-source textures to create a narrative that moves between earthly settings and cosmic interior spaces. Darker tones appear as awe-filled beauty rather than terror. The music blends folk and alt-country with psychedelic influences and hip-hop–style layering and sampling, occasionally feeling cinematic and functioning like a film score. The release marks Emil Amos's first new material since 2020 and his fourth on Thrill Jockey.
Read at Portland Mercury
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