Michelangelo Dying

Cate Le Bon's new album is about heartbreak. The thing with albums about heartbreak, though, is when they come from folks this clever and artful, it helps to have the liner notes about lingering in the desolation of California deserts to further illuminate things. In other words, Michelangelo Dying is sad in the way David Bowie's Low is sad — a blurred neon dream where the singer croons and the saxophonist steps out from behind an Ionic column to mourn at you.Le Bon is continuing a level-up that started with her first Mexican Summer release, Reward, back in 2019. Since then, she has established herself as a critical darling and in-demand producer for the best and brightest across an array of stylistic circles (Wilco, St. Vincent, Horsegirl, Dry Cleaning). Her own style has settled into a well-tailored version of '80s New Romanticism that few are able to pull off, or honestly would even attempt.The album unfolds in synth swell after synth swell, carried along on chemical string arrangements that describe how love can be a hard drug to come down from, as is the narcotic mood on "Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?" In other places, like "Pieces of My Heart," things are more plainly stated: "This is how we fall apart / I'm on the ropes, you're on the wave," Le Bon reflects, as relationship problems dilate to the size of an America that needs escaping from.Le Bon's duet with John Cale on "Ride" gently touches on all kinds of ends, but also celebrates the rodeo that has given the ride its value; the overlay of their histories gives the album yet another kind of delicious density. In constructing such an ornate snarl of emotion and eloquence, Le Bon has effectively created in Michelangelo Dying a bummer album that doesn't actually require any wallowing to digest.