Keep Shelly In Athens’ name is a pun on the Kypseli neighborhood in the Greek capital and their debut LP At Home often takes the tone of a homesick tour diary; you can’t help but feel that the album title is a wish or a mantra. And yet, while I’m willing to admit that I’ve never been to Greece, I have been to New York City, and for all of its superficial hometown pride, At Home actually suffers from the same criticisms as post-Giuliani Gotham: it wants to remind visitors of a cutting edge, artistic vitality fostered in the 1980s while keeping the attendant danger at a very safe distance.
At Home’s mid-fi synth production begs the usual descriptors: swooning, soft-focus, the sort of thing often considered “dream-pop” for the way it reminds people of the things they use to achieve a waking dream state: sex, drugs, druggy sex, sexy drugs. But KSIA’s approach is staunchly risk-averse and gentrified. Sarah P’s delivery has the requisite breathiness and her words are suggestive, though reverb always renders her as an observer rather than a participant. The only exception is an sparingly deployed distorted effect that makes her sound exactly like Karen O, but despite its confrontational tone, it’s just another obfuscation. Her partner RNR’s aesthetic is also a typical bedroom producer homebrew of smudge and sheen-- no texture here would be too radical or abrasive for any Cocteau Twins record despite its occasional nod towards harsher tones of post-dubstep or hip-hop. Nor would any retail manager in 2013 run afoul of their superiors if they played this during business hours.
Which isn’t exactly a selling point, since it’s hard to think of At Home outside the context of the dozens, if not hundreds, of aspiring, wavy synth-pop duos that remind you why Purity Ring and CHVRCHES have shot up towards festival status in such a short time. They're the exceptions in a style where most bands barely even try to establish a distinct personality, let alone write killer hooks. Certain production touches lend the songs on At Home variance from each other, but not much KSIA can claim as their own. The possible Black Flag reference of “Room 14 (I’m Fine)” hints at punk ideals underneath a feathery, Inc.-like guitar figure, and the lyrics of “DIY” do the same, though “you may dream of glory/ shabbiness is your story” isn’t the kind of mission statement that makes you go wild and spray paint the walls.
At Home is more successful when the music tries to assume some kind of aggressiveness, though the awkwardness presents its own set of problems. The heaving backbeat of opener “Time Only Exists To Betray Us” is neutralized by puffy reverb, while “Higher” gets rudely punctuated by a doom metal riff and dancehall chatter. Whether the latter “works” or not feels like a moot point-- it’s exciting to hear KSIA try something that deigns for rudeness, though its novelty depends on how long it’s been since you’ve listened to Salem. Same for “Madmen Love”, whose juddering arrhythmia conjures an ambitious but ungainly Soundcloud remix of a recent Yeah Yeah Yeahs song before its sax-soaked, arena-rock climax. Meanwhile, a bluffer’s guide to the past three decades of dance-indebted, record-collector indie-pop is formed by “Oostende”, “Recollection” and “Flyway”, respectively covering the 80s (Cocteau Twins) 90s (Saint Etienne) and 2000s (pick a chillwaver).
It’s an impressive syllabus of influences, but you figure At Home might appeal more to the extremely casual listener unfamiliar with all of the aforementioned. It’s an enjoyable and subtly diverse listen only if you give it your undivided attention. For all of their geographic namedrops, Keep Shelly in Athens’ home is the Internet, where a single referential connection can make you forget how you got there two minutes ago. It’s all obviously figurative, but KSIA have built their rep not on touring but in the necessary manner to stay in our respective RSS feeds-- singles, EPs, compilations and remixes on top of remixes. But when all of their peers and collaborators are on a level playing field, equally available to the listener, does anything here inspire a conscious decision to listen to At Home instead? What have they done to distinguish themselves from Young Magic or IO ECHO or Pure Bathing Culture or Still Corners or I Break Horses or the Hundred in the Hands or any of the current bands acting as takers rather than givers in the synth-pop lineage? Is it just a matter of who gets heard first? Maybe At Home isn’t so timid after all-- when so many bands do this, isn’t simply doing it with competence the riskiest thing possible?
