DEVOURS - Homecoming Queen
Self-Released
Released May 9th, 2023
So, let’s get this out of the way - I consider the fact that last years’ Escape From Planet Devours didn’t make its way onto the Polaris long list to be indicative of a genuine failing on the part of the Canadian music award jury. I rate the artistic output of Vancouver electro pop artist Devours to be easily on par with that of former prize list candidates such as Feist, Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, and I was frankly flabbergasted when his last effort, as technically perfect an album as an artist could hope to produce, didn’t land.
Perhaps the failure to recognize this absolute gem on an artist is due to Devours’ relentlessly unabashed outsiderness; middle aged, hairy, bald, gay alien dudes with a few extra pounds already have it tough within their own community, let alone within the youth & beauty obsessed music industry. Devours is a veritable patron saint for those who don’t conform to the in-crowd aesthetic standard, and as such, I’d expect nothing less than for him to maintain his status as a dark horse within the larger music community, but damn, do I ever wish more people would get with the program. He’s indicative of the kind of sea-change the music industry desperately needs, and is finally beginning to see with the emergence of the hyperpop genre (to which Devours is clearly both philosophically and aesthetically aligned) into the mainstream.
Suffice to say, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the follow up, and was tremendously excited to discover that Devours had another offering in the chamber for 2023, the thematic sequel to Homecoming Queen, a record that deals with the realities of returning to regular life after the period of depression/isolation that informed much of the previous LP.
“Over the hill and out of control/Vancouver isn’t boring, I’m just getting old” opens the frank, confessional and melancholic “37up (the Longing),” which drifts tempos as it morphs into an elegiac dirge before ramping up into a hyperpop confection rife with nostalgia for the hunger that accompanies youthful ambition.
The tone shifts drastically on “Reverse Ombre,” a caustic admonishment to let go of the toxic things & people that don’t serve us, moored by an absolutely infectious synth melody. “When I came home/all the anger from my youth was gone” he sings on the title track, an icy, epic dirge in the vein of Depeche Mode or New Order, and the thematic lynchpin of the album.
Aesthetically, Homecoming Queen feels much more personal, intimate and moody to me than Escape From Planet Devours, less celebration than reflection, at least until party ass banger single “Hairspin” (my fave amour fou club track since Rihanna’s We Found Love) gets underway(if you need a single track to assure you that Devours is indeed a goddamn pop music genius, please just play “Hairspin” at maximum volume and see what happens to your serotonin levels).
“Jacuzzi My Stonewall” is an explicit reminder of just how valuable and unique a perspective is on offer here - it’s keenly critical take on modern pride and the mainstreaming of gay culture, via corporate acceptance, declaring “corporate is the new punk/let’s have a rave at Shoppers Drug Mart after hours/it pays to be gay.” “Somehow it don’t feel right that I’m alive to bask in rights you fought so hard for/and now I don’t think twice about my life despite the freedom that you died for,” he concludes, in what may be one of the most poignant meditations on the strange price of acceptance into a world that once cast you into the darkness. Again, Polaris people, please wake the fuck up.
Homecoming Queen is a mature, meditative and bitterly poignant reflection on the nature of growing up, and as such, can be a bitter pill to swallow. Regardless, as bitter pills go, it's good for what ails us, and you can bet your ass it’ll be making it onto my best of 2023 list. I don’t know if the under thirty crowd will really get it, anymore than young people probably got similar reflections on aging like Billy Joel’s The Stranger, or Elton John’s Captain Fantastic, when they were originally released.
I made a claim in my review of Escape from Planet Devours along the line of Devours being synth music for rock fans, and I stand by it. There’s still the heaviness, grandeur and complexity that I associate with a classic era of album oriented rock in the Devours canon, but filtered through the aesthetic of gay club life, like Pink Floyd on a night out with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s absolutely delightful, and any discerning fan of edgy, artful pop will find endless lyrical and melodic treasures here.
- Shaun Lee
