Sylvie Kreusch - Comic Trip

"Big, bold emotions" are the unifying theme of Sylvie Kreusch's adventurous new album *Comic Trip*. Kreusch steps away from her elevated role as a night owl, trading her fiery red hair for a wild blonde mane. With hands on the wheel, she embarks on a journey to savor life's offerings. With stylistic nods to bands like The B-52’s and Stereolab, the title track of *Comic Trip* sounds like the pop version of a retro comic book, full of spectacle, intrigue, and euphoria. Thanks to the bright and sparkling arrangements and playful hooks (“PAAW PAAW! BANG BANG! KACHAAAAW! WHEM BLEM!/ I always knew / But I want to believe it now”), Kreusch transforms into a living comic book heroine, leaping from panel to panel. Her seductive voice derails into an almost childlike recklessness. *Comic Trip* is both a departure into Sylvie's vivid imagination and an arrival at her most natural, candid self. The Lou Reed-like "Butterfly" playfully questions outdated ideas of perfectionism and beauty. In the cinematic "Ride Away," paying homage to the legendary Ennio Morricone, she plays a runaway bride riding toward a new sunset. "Hocus Pocus" paints a neo-Western scene reminiscent of Wim Wenders' classic *Paris, Texas*, with Sylvie as a worldly and willful lover drifting through promenades. Every journey eventually comes full circle, and *Comic Trip* is no exception. On "Home" and the closing track "You Can’t Get It Done," Sylvie returns to a sanctuary where the carousel of impressions and experiences from the album is eternally relived. On "You Can’t Get It Done," she asks aloud, “Do you need another broken heart to live up to this dream?” On the sweeping, heartfelt "Final Hour," where she meets her lover in an apocalyptic downpour at the height of her passion, she answers her own question: “I keep dreaming on/No, I don’t need a promise/We don’t need to fall apart.”