The video for “They Don’t Know”, the opening track off White Sea’s debut In Cold Blood, features M83 singer/keyboardist Morgan Kibby and friends partaking in a river baptism, swimming around in a slow motion riot of Greek statuesque bodies and billowing, brightly colored sheets. Paired with the song’s soaring vocals, tribal drums, and clanging church bells, the whole affair resembles “Circle of Life” performed by a Wilson Phillips-fronted Skid Row—a reminder that, when it comes to indulgence, Kibby just can’t help herself. “I really have a taste for drama,” she told Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør. “Sometimes I have to remind myself to rein it back.”
On In Cold Blood, the theatrics are comparable in ambition to the music that Kibby's had a hand in as part of M83. It’s not as tastefully epic, but Kibby deserves props for fully realizing the vision outlined on her debut EP, 2010's This Frontier. She’s turned into a formidable synth sorceress; on "Warsaw", Kibby claims she can travel in time and through walls, and that she’ll “seduce your wives” and “fuck you blind”, and she does it with impressive vocal chops, worlds away from the breathy coo she used on Saturdays=Youth's “Kim & Jessie” or “Skin of the Night". On “Future Husbands, Past Lives”, she sustains a robust vibrato through her lower midrange all the way through her falsetto, shooting skyward like a balloon set free.
But there’s a fine line between power singing and over-singing, and sometimes Kibby oversteps it with over-the-top embellishments: there's the corny vocalizing on “Warsaw”, the squealing electric guitars in the background of “Ex-Pats”, and a liberal sprinkling of fairy dust over the strings-and-piano ballad “Small December”. Granted, this is music that embraces extremity—“NYC Loves You”'s soaring chorus, thundering drum rolls, and slide guitar, is pure Journey in the best possible way—but Kibby’s dramatic flourishes and musical inspirations are, at best, an acquired taste.
At any rate, In Cold Blood’s '80s-redolent enthusiasm is an improvement on This Frontier’s tepid electro-pop, and its strongest moments— "Future Husbands", "They Don't Know", and "NYC Loves You"—find the balance between "cheesy" and "cool" by reining in the former impulses while staying thematically consistent so the instrumentation complements Kibby's voice rather than matching or overpowering it. Kibby's willingness to push boundaries makes In Cold Blood worth listening to—and, who knows, maybe one day its songs will make for some great karaoke.
