Modus Vivendi leaves the listener with very mixed feelings, whether it’s wonderful storytelling and vocals to times where Shake is lost in the production.
The production is consistent throughout, in terms of being super clean and well mixed, but sometimes it being too clean makes the songs too sterile, and other times it’s just perfect with the ambience of the track. It’s confusing. Same with 070 Shake’s autotuned vocals. Sometimes it works really well in a nice experimental direction (although paved by previous artists), and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the big shrug feeling.
The misses? They’re noise left to dry. Does anyone remember Flight319? Raise your hand. Terminal B is too spacious. It would honestly work better if Shake didn’t sing sometimes because then it would commit to its ambience instead of feeling awkward. Microdosing and Divorce are way too sanitized, which is a shame because the latter has the start of cool drums that were woefully lowered in the mix a minute in. Daydreamin’ is standard and out of place.
When the album collides, it hits hard, however, and it’s never in the same way. Morrow has a nice acoustic lead that trips you up with the heavy bass R&B before Shake croons over it, with a chorus that’s infectious with only a few words. Guilty Conscience is an incredible track, where the autotune makes Shake just as unfeeling as the loss of her “guilty conscience” from the story of both partners cheating, and yet still passionate for the chorus. Absolutely a song that deserves to grace the radio.
Under the Moon has the perfect balance of her own vocals and autotune, with a nice ballad and good use of putting her vocals behind the mix of the percussion when she gets “high”, which carries the airy feeling of the song’s namesake. Rocketship has a lovely lead melody that builds a nice tinny atmosphere, but it unfortunately is too repetitive for its own good. Don’t Break the Silence paints a nice lead to Come Around but that song drops the ball. The Pines has potential but I’m not even sure where it ended up.
There is still something that benefits the album, in that it’s a much nicer listen as a whole. The variety is kept throughout the album to near the very end. Guilty Conscience is just too good a track to not carry it far, soaring under the moon.
By: Jacob Stewart
