The follow up to Now That I’m Real from 2019, Salt Water is the sophomore full length by Parisian synthpop artist, Fragrance., the brainchild of producer Matthieu Roche. The new album is co-produced with Sophia Hamadi from Opale, and it's composed of ten melancholic, dreamlike synthpop numbers, all danceable and steeped in an intrinsic style of wistfulness.
Without changing direction from the sound of the project's earlier material, Fragrance.'s new work finds the artist honing in on everything that makes his glimmering kind of synthpop bloom and stand out; from the sentimentality and the intelligibility of his writing to the crystalline production.
Tracks The Cure, Crisis and Covered In Cold came by installments to showcase the growth in Fragrance.'s musicianship, and evidently the entirety of Salt Water which developed into something more immense and substantial than a collection of singles. Kinetic, spirited and polished to a sufficient amount, tracks like the opener, Forevermore, the more twisted Attiré Par Le Chaos and the driving Bind Me Up With Your Flesh are as emphatic as the aforementioned singles, and as cogent as that illustrious first TR/ST full length, throwing more light on the shinier and more aglow side of darkwave.
Connotative of many forms of musical cohesion, Salt Water staggers in different degrees, and it's a superlative synthpop album beyond any doubts.