Call It Love
by
Call It Love Image
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Awaiting 3 more ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
  • 0
  • Summary: The third full-length release for the Seattle indie-pop artist was co-produced with Small Black's Juan Pieczanski and Ryan Heyner
Buy Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Uncut
    Aug 3, 2017
    70
    "Give Me Love" and "Last Time" may articulate different relationship stages, but are euphoric in their own ways. [Sep 2017, p.35]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. AllMusic
    Aug 3, 2017
    70
    The giddy quality may stick more than do individual songs, but they succeed in capturing some of the wooziness of new love.
  3. Pitchfork
    Aug 4, 2017
    69
    The lack of anything like a pained or ecstatic voice in Call It Love can make its emotional core tricky to access. Instead of reading it in her voice, you have to read it in her lyrics and the environments in which she’s chosen to nestle them. That doesn’t detract from Call It Love’s prettiness.
  4. Paste Magazine
    Aug 3, 2017
    68
    Call It Love, her fourth album, was a chance for the Seattle native to move further into synthpop substance, but the beautiful, luminescent prisms she resides in often fail to reach emotional ground.
  5. The A.V. Club
    Aug 4, 2017
    67
    This is a record that plays it safe musically, even as it probes uncomfortable emotional states and difficult experiences.
  6. Exclaim
    Aug 3, 2017
    60
    Call It Love is an enticing work, but despite its many pleasing qualities, it doesn't quite stand out from the oversaturated electronic dream-pop scene.
  7. Under The Radar
    Aug 3, 2017
    60
    Marela's exploration and experimentation as an artist will be key in sustaining what is hopefully a long career for this talent. However, it yields a follow-up release slightly less impressive than its predecessor.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. stanTM4
    Dec 8, 2017
    9
    Sometimes love can feel like a dream. At one moment, those attachments and bonds are the realest aspects of life that matter and in the nextSometimes love can feel like a dream. At one moment, those attachments and bonds are the realest aspects of life that matter and in the next moment there’s little to know sign that they ever existed and finding context for what made the time special becomes harder and harder to gather. Whilst embraced in those euphoric experiences you share with special people in your lives there above floats an air of endless emotions. It’s hard to hold on to just one emotion, cause before you know it, the relationship could all be over. This is where we find Briana, conflict within the fray, and ferociously lost within it.
    Guided by the attractive inviting aura of early love she’s desperately trying to let her feelings be felt and heard. This sentiment is hit on the top of our heads with the endless echoes of ‘Give me your love, I want it all’s’ on ‘Give Me Your Love’ and ‘I love You’s’ on ‘I’m Sorry’. The front half of the project is placed in this dazzling atmosphere of swirling smooth synths and chiming bells, complemented by radiant beaming background vocals.
    By the midpoint these once cozy feelings start to unravel. The environment is suddenly menacing, with bright synths clouded by their darker counterparts, building anxiety across the sonic landscape. Briana even starts ‘Quit’ by explaining how she woke up one day and ‘things were not the same’. The growing ambiguousness of the relationship leaves a lot of boundaries unclarified. We’re lead thereafter to the center piece of the project in ‘Call It Love’ finding Briana questioning assumptions on where she and her lover stand in the relationship. The production blasts and waves with the fervor of a miserable subject. This much unsureness has begun to weigh down on her emotional and mental state, doubly drawing on the strings of her self-esteem, compromising her genuine happiness.
    This sudden dream turned bad storm lead us to tracks which showcase Briana coming to terms with herself and what gives life meaning outside of how others view her. We hear this in ‘Rise’ where she feels lost both in the world and in herself. Existential crisis’s are more apparent in this digital age of instant gratification and thin-layered happiness. Briana has to come to terms with living in a state of self-appreciation, so that any positive output towards a lover has legitimate backing to it. Only then will she and her lover both ‘Call it Love’, and hopefully, for life.    … Expand

Current Music Releases

Full List »
100 Live and Dangerous [Super Deluxe Edition] - Thin Lizzy
94 Desire, I Want To Turn into You - Caroline Polachek
91 Live at the Whisky 1977 [Box Set] - Cheap Trick
91 Travel - The Necks
90 S.O.S. - SZA
90 Manzanita - Shana Cleveland
90 False Lankum - Lankum
90 the record - boygenius
89 That! Feels Good! - Jessie Ware
89 Rat Saw God - Wednesday
89 Maps - billy woods
88 12 - Ryuichi Sakamoto
88 Angel Numbers - Hamish Hawk
88 Blómi - Susanne Sundfør
88 Wait Til I Get Over - Durand Jones
87 Everything Harmony - The Lemon Twigs
87 Indigo - RM
87 The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17: Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions 1996-1997 - Bob Dylan
87 Honky Château [50th Anniversary Edition] - Elton John
87 The Songs of Bacharach & Costello [Super Deluxe Edition Box Set] - Elvis Costello
All Current Music »