More about: Walt Disco

Walt Disco’s debut album is a melodramatic and self-explorative step out onto the stage. A stage show in two acts, Unlearning, pulls together entrancing production and sprawling soundscapes to interrogate love, flings, heartbreak and identity. 

As much of a product of our times as it is of musical legacy, Unlearning is a debut album that both situates Walt Disco as a synth-indie/rock band and challenges our expectations of them. Produced largely in a bedroom due to the pandemic, the exploration of production and instrumentation is plenty experimental. The natural discovery of the sound of Unlearning speaks in tangent with the thread of the album’s emotional core: self-discovery and listening to intuition. 

Opening the album with a synthesised explosion of theatricality, ‘Weightless’ commands your attention and hooks you into this journey that Walt Disco are embarking on. Starkly repeating "for all of my life I was in the dark," the faux epilogue shares the sense of self-discovery and enlightenment that characterises Unlearning. 

At the core of this journey is delving into the navigation of the queer identity alongside love and heartbreak. ‘Weightless’ introduces this from the offset, sharing that it is never too late to explore and express your identity. Other tracks such as ‘Be An Actor’ and ‘Hold Yourself High as Ever’ continue this thread throughout the album. Yet this comes to it’s most notable high point in ‘Macilent,’ with its confrontational approach to violence against LGBTQ+ communities.

Seeking previous examples of queer artistry and pulling it into their unique hyper-pop/indie rock sound, Walt Disco meld past and present within Unlearning as a product of this melodramatic journey. It is not hard to seek out the influences that Walt Disco are drawing upon in creating their album. The androgynous artistry of Bowie finds itself propelled through the vocals in single ‘How Cool Are You?’ This works alongside a chorus of whimsical ‘las’ that feel as if they have been plucked from Elton John’s catalogue. Other moments of disco legacy see themselves at the forefront in the funky basslines of ‘Cut Your Hair’ and the upbeat catchiness of ‘Selfish Lover'.

These sprawling influences find themselves contained and at home on the stage that Unlearning sets for them. The concept is executed tightly, with even a musical interlude, ‘Costume Change’, playfully separating the two halves of the album. It is this theatrical concept that works as the glue for Unlearning—no matter how sprawling the experimentation with sound or influence, and no matter how broad themes of love, flings, desire and identity are, they all find home on the stage of Unlearning.  

Ultimately, the curtain closes on the album in ‘If I Had A Perfect Life’ which finishes on a self-reflective poem. Confronting the self-discovery that frequently requires re-examination and unlearning of previous ways of thought, Walt Disco have approached their debut album with tenacity and force. An exploration of queer identity, Unlearning is a musically expansive and experimental album that forefronts the universal message that it is never too late to be yourself. 

Unlearning arrives 1 April via Lucky Number.

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More about: Walt Disco