Teeny Lieberson’s world is full of ghosts. Lieberson – formerly of indietronica band TEEN and Here We Go Magic, a current member of Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, and who records solo under the moniker Lou Tides – acknowledges that there are spectral beings all around us. Be they the ghosts of pandemic trauma and isolation, the ghosts of anger at the surrounding world, or the ghost of Lieberson herself, the only path forward for her is clear: a purging must occur. To rid herself of these haunting entities and feelings, Lieberson uses her debut album Autostatic! to expunge. The album is practically an exorcism of ideas.
And Lieberson has a generous helping of concepts to dish out, which makes Autostatic! a varied listen. It’s accessible and impenetrable in equal measures, sometimes going between the two in a moment’s notice. The standout title track is upbeat with a hook you could hang a coat on, nodding to both a shoegaze and krautrock influence, while “Map Maker”, with it’s insistent danceable groove and come ons (“I want you to do me a favor”), is like a Laurie Anderson offcut sewn into a different gown. Opening track “Low Wow” emerges from a fuzzy overture of noise before submerging into a slinky noir-ish tone. A processed death-metal scorn against Lieberson’s airy, poppy chorus makes the track feel like it was recorded with a Jekyll & Hyde mentality (which isn’t far off from the truth, as the song explores domestic violence and dishes out unsettling affirmations like “I hate everything, everything about you / Even the way you wish me well”).
Paired with overtly and more easily enjoyable tracks are the likes of the dense, gothic, deliberately self-pitying, and Ethel Cain-like “I Understand It’s Spilled Milk” with its waves of distorted, ghostly voices. The obtuse and itchy “Did You Get High” bursts open into a cavern of synths, like streamers firing off in multiple directions – but with no discernable aim. Incomprehensible lyrics like “Loss of gloss is keen to do / Sitting in my oak tree / Falsified in reverie / Sipping on some tea leaves” don’t help and only leave you wondering who or what the song is for exactly. The glum dirge of “Flood Facts” does show off Lieberson’s vocal versatility and could be argued to be picking up pieces of her musical past and reforming them into new shapes (“I was swimming in what already shattered,” she sings tellingly), but is essentially a four minute swell of noise that’s far from a waterlogged basement, let alone any kind of flood.
In many regards Autostatic! feels like the musical equivalent of the 2016 Olivier Assayas film Personal Shopper. There’s a dedicated performance at the centre of it all, a mix of styles and ideas (horror, drama, black comedy), and any of them could have worked if Lieberson stuck to the path. Instead it comes off disjointed and jagged. Bartees Strange’s production here seems more akin to letting Lieberson have at it with whatever she wants as opposed to reigning much in. While Autostatic! is undoubtedly more experimental than her 2023 Infinite Loop EP, it similarly thrives when Lieberson has a crosshair-like aim on her target.
Consider final track “Clotted”, which strips away much of the distorting noise, instead opting for gentle guitars and voice. “I’m here to love but I’m all clotted and torn,” Lieberson offers. “All caught up and cooped up / In my own solitary way” she sings, pointing the camera at herself. If Lieberson wanted to get these ideas out of the way before her next step, then the album does that well enough. But like the ghosts she describes these songs as, they are haunting in places, mysterious in intent, but also almost impossible to grasp hold of.
