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Chet Faker's debut album Built on Glass is a compulsive, slickly produced, late-night groove of a record. Intriguing and powerful, Faker manages to create electronic music with bite and passion.
It's not that you can't dance to Faker's music but it's that you probably won't want to. His music works because it is extremely subtle in nature but at the same time highly memorable. Faker never attacks you with any overly throbbing bass lines but rather slowly makes you warm to his music through the use of his soulful and chilled voice.
But it's not all sunshines and roses either. His lyrics have enough heartbreak and violence in them to make an impact so that it doesn't just become so much more than background music. On 'Melt' his chorus contains the line "My happiness, some kind of fu**ed up mess," and this is indicative of what other inner turmoil Faker manages to display on this record.
Expertly mixed, the record flows like melted chocolate and flows at a calm, correct pace for this genre. Perhaps some will misconstrue some of his subtle interludes or lengthy tracks such as 'Cigarettes & Loneliness' as slightly pretentious or cliche, but the fact is no one has done a better job of this genre recently. Faker ticks all the boxes; so although he might seem like this has been done before, it's rarely been done better.
With enough musical finesse displayed to appeal to any technical expert, and enough cool factor to make you want to listen on repeat, Faker's album is sure to be appreciated by many. Imbued with gorgeous harmonies, lush synths and down-right funky beats, 'Built on Glass' is an intriguing, impressive listen from start to finish.
