First off, Nothing's Lost is a winter record, so unless you're stuck in perpetual December, it won't do you much good now. Go outside. Secondly, the only reason I say it's a winter record is because I can't think of any other time when anyone would tolerate its relentless grousing. Styrofoam have always put forth a sort of wistful glitch-hop, but Nothing's Lost elevates the mope to an art form. They implement a policy of Leave No Platitude Behind with enough conviction to sustain the record for about four bars; then you realize the striking similarities between this LP 's over-dodged Notwist-style lap pop and, um, Linkin Park. We don't even need an audibly breath-controlled verse from guest emcee Alias to tell us that.
The list of other guest appearances here reads like a who's-who of post-glitch lap-pop: Postal Service and Death Cab star Ben Gibbard not only provides vocals but contributes music to several tracks as well. Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set and Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna also take turns on the mic, and Notwist/Lali Puna leader Markus Acher pitches in on guitar.
Opener "Misguided" is an inauspicious dud, leaving Styrofoam to scrape himself off the ground. He manages, just barely. The rest of Nothing's Lost nine tracks carom from fuzzy-wuzzy IDM to rain-soaked shoegazer and often dwell in the spacious grey area between half-digested genres. No other track is as vapid as "Misguided", but the opener puts Styrofoam at a deep disadvantage, from which he never quite recovers.
"Ticket Out of Town" is one big long sloppy 80s college rock guitar solo swamped in white noise and an overbearingly busy beat. It's an interesting concept, but Styrofoam has trouble deciding which elements to give preference and it never coagulates. Ben Gibbard guests on "Couches in Alleys", a song which miraculously finds a way to make the Postal Service frontman sound even more precious than his own band's protocol. "Front to Back" takes a slithery, Moby-style beat and wrings all the bathetic juices out of it, finding peace by propulsion. Incidentally, the record's most upbeat track is also its strongest. Sporting a beeline dance beat and an anthemic chorus, "Anything" explores the flipside of Styrofoam's typically frowning approach. Maybe it's unfair that we excuse cornstarch more readily when it's bright and beaming than when it's downtrodden, but Styrofoam should keep the prejudice in mind.
Whereas five years ago it might have seemed novel, hacking conventional songwriting with CPU's and lacing it with twitchy synthetic beats is old hat. But Styrofoam isn't at fault for trying to do something new and failing--he's guilty of a shoddy translation job. Nothing's Lost attempts to superimpose traditional pop formats onto a digitally-enhanced and -metamorphosed aesthetic. Postal Service succeed by paring down-- they're lo-fi for the G5 era. L'Altra and Notwist are pop wizards masquerading as techies. Not even Pope Benedict XVI, meanwhile, knows what's happening beneath Dntel's beautiful textures, but who cares? Styrofoam, by comparison, has no singular strength. Nothing's Lost is a well-meaning record that just got its priorities mixed up. These tech'd-up tearjerkers can out bench press anyone in terms of sonic fodder, but the album is whiny, transparent, and a colossal hodgepodge.
