Soft-spoken and svelte, with a young face and long hair that drapes over his shoulders, Garrett Borns looks like a musician, though not necessarily a frontman. Listening to interviews, you might even expect him to be something of a recluse. But when you watch him perform, you realize that all of those assumptions were wrong. With the looseness of Robert Plant and the flamboyancy of David Bowie, Borns owns the stage. His eclectic wardrobe, which includes at least one sequinned, tasseled jacket, naturally draws the eye. If you the time and the inclination, watch some of his live performances on YouTube. Covering with ease everything from ‘Moonage Daydream’ to ‘It’s My Party’ to ‘Bennie and the Jets’, Borns displays not only his musical acumen, but also his indebtedness to his musical origins and influences.
Speaking of origins, here is a brief history lesson: Borns hails from Michigan, though his music is more reflective of the insouciant and sunshine-y lifestyle of L.A. beaches, where he currently lives. (He just lives near the beach, to clarify). Last year, he recorded and released his first major-label EP, Candy, under the moniker BØRNS. People lost their heads over it. Anticipation for his full-length album steadily grew over the following months and in October, Dopamine debuted. The album peaked at number 2 on the Alternative Album Billboard chart.
The album begins with the slow, shimmering ‘10,000 Emerald Pools’, a groovy little guitar-driven love song, notable for its perfectly delivered backing vocals. The music video is really something, too. ‘Electric Love’, the runaway single, needs no description here, seeing as it has gotten its fair share of accolades from much more influential voices. ‘Holy Ghost’ and ‘The Emotion’ have infectious choruses and the title track is a great blend of Maroon 5 and the Bee Gees, owing some of its melodic style to songs by those specific artists (think ‘More Than a Woman’).
Then there’s ‘Fool’. With its disco drums and Phil-Spector-Wall-of-Sound chorus, it closes the album in stark contrast to ’10,000 Emerald Pools’. It’s one of the few songs on the album that makes use of ‘real’ instruments, or at least instruments that are not dripping in effects. The high, pounding piano in the chorus, the tinkling xylophone in the bridge, and the crisp drum fill that takes it all back to the final, rousing chorus, leave the listener thinking, “Hey, I could make something like this, too”. It’s an approachable song that garage bands could play and still sound half-way like the original. It is undoubtedly my favorite song on the album.
Speaking of origins, here is a brief history lesson: Borns hails from Michigan, though his music is more reflective of the insouciant and sunshine-y lifestyle of L.A. beaches, where he currently lives. (He just lives near the beach, to clarify). Last year, he recorded and released his first major-label EP, Candy, under the moniker BØRNS. People lost their heads over it. Anticipation for his full-length album steadily grew over the following months and in October, Dopamine debuted. The album peaked at number 2 on the Alternative Album Billboard chart.
The album begins with the slow, shimmering ‘10,000 Emerald Pools’, a groovy little guitar-driven love song, notable for its perfectly delivered backing vocals. The music video is really something, too. ‘Electric Love’, the runaway single, needs no description here, seeing as it has gotten its fair share of accolades from much more influential voices. ‘Holy Ghost’ and ‘The Emotion’ have infectious choruses and the title track is a great blend of Maroon 5 and the Bee Gees, owing some of its melodic style to songs by those specific artists (think ‘More Than a Woman’).
Then there’s ‘Fool’. With its disco drums and Phil-Spector-Wall-of-Sound chorus, it closes the album in stark contrast to ’10,000 Emerald Pools’. It’s one of the few songs on the album that makes use of ‘real’ instruments, or at least instruments that are not dripping in effects. The high, pounding piano in the chorus, the tinkling xylophone in the bridge, and the crisp drum fill that takes it all back to the final, rousing chorus, leave the listener thinking, “Hey, I could make something like this, too”. It’s an approachable song that garage bands could play and still sound half-way like the original. It is undoubtedly my favorite song on the album.
Dopamine is best described as a collection of synth-centric pop tunes which, though diverse in influence and style, sound fairly uniform. Uniformity has the potential to be risky; there is a difference between a seamless sound and an indistinguishable one. At times, Dopamine skirts that line; some of the weaker songs on the album feel like shadows of the stronger, and thematically (or, perhaps, lyrically), the songs focus almost exclusively on the pleasures of love and sex, which can often be (and are here, at times) hackneyed. Granted, pleasure is the uniting factor, the theme even, considering dopamine’s role in pleasure, but am I a fool for wanting more? Can I have the pleasure of sexy sounds and thought-provoking substance?
Borns knows the power of music. Four years ago, he gave a TEDx talk in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about music. In the video, he claims that music, before any of the romance languages, is the language of love. Music is unitary; on a recent trip to France, he recounts, his street performing drew people to him, even while singing in a foreign tongue. We all know what it’s like to hear a great piece of music and be unexplainably moved by it. The songs listed above do that; it’s hard to listen to ‘Electric Love’ without getting excited. It is, as Borns said in a video, a “fantastical love [song] that you can...shout from...canyons”.
But there’s something else I want. The songs leave me dancing but unhitched from something greater.
I am interested to see where BØRNS goes next.