REVIEW: Dark Touches By Har Mar Superstar

(Megaforce)

***

In terms of form, Dark Touches is radio pop. It delivers glossy studio textures, universally palatable rnb-funk beats, and boy band flavoured vocals (think Justin Timberlake).

Emerging from iridescent lights that have transfixed your gaze on a sinuous haze - your idol has arrived. Receding in hairline, abundant of flesh, and proudly exhibiting himself in his tyt-wyts. As evocative as you may find this image, this is precisely the pop music counter narrative that Sean Tillman’s alter ego Har Mar Superstar has to offer with his new album Dark Touches. The alarm bells are ringing - the comforting homogeneity of the radio pop genre is under siege. Oddly enough, Har Mar’s lyrics are the only instance of the composition where he abandons his pop sensibilities; sometimes it’s not cool, it is actually just prepubescent boy humour. In terms of form, Dark Touches is radio pop. It delivers glossy studio textures, universally palatable rnb-funk beats, and boy band flavoured vocals (think Justin Timberlake). It arouses some regret to see Dark Touches potentially castrated by a deficiency of hype-generating hooks. Dark Touches is accessible, an intrinsically compelling concept, handicapped by a failure to fulfill the stylistic trajectories it sets out on.

Reuben Wisheart