Radiate Like This

While some may find the almost gossamer light touch a bit insubstantial, repeated plays will find Radiate Like This weaving its way into your heart. Despite it being a long time in the making, it almost feels like Warpaint have never been away.

Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the difficulties Warpaint overcame while making the album, Radiate Like This is a quiet stunner and a very welcome return.

While the classic Warpaint tropes - clever, heady interplay; four voices weaving as one - are present and correct, this time the more icy edges are rounded off in favour of softness and a nurturing sense of femininity.

The all-female indie-rock quartet, have returned after a six year hiatus with fourth album Radiate Like This, and it feels more intimate than ever.

The album is excitingly dynamic as it cycles through its varied but unified vibes – whether that’s the uptempo, dancey ‘Hips’; the spacey, seductive ‘Like Sweetness’; or the moody ballad ‘Trouble’. There’s a maturity to the lyrical content here, which by no means undercuts its playfulness.

Warpaint's finest album so far. [Jun 2022, p.88]

It’s an album that radiates warmth and is lighter in tone than their previous outings but it is in many ways a typical Warpaint album, one that can mesmerize, seduce, and confound in equal measure. As with previous albums, Radiate Like This does make demands on the listener to do just that, actually listen, and requires some patience before it fully reveals itself.

Yeah, that’s a decent album. Flags towards the end, sure. Some rippers on there, though. Glad I stuck with it.