IAMX – Alive In New Light

IAMX - Alive In New Light

Album facts

Release: February 2nd, 2018
Label: Caroline / Universal
Genre: , , ,
Discogs: Link

The official statement

"Emerging from an intense depres­sion that fuelled his last two albums, Chris Corner aka 'IAMX' releases his new­est album 'Alive In New Light'. A cine­mat­ic cel­eb­ra­tion of break­ing free from demons that have long plagued him, 'Alive In New Light' cap­tures the giddy phase of meta­morph­os­is, when you are no longer what you were but not yet fully what you are becom­ing.", says the offi­cial press release.

Alive In New Light

'Stardust' opens the album with a gal­lop­ing groove remin­is­cent of Depeche Mode’s 'Personal Jesus'. And indeed the open­er of the album is well chosen: I really love the dynam­ic between the quiet and loud parts of this track. This one is fully packed with all kinds of weird elec­tron­ic samples and instru­ments that sound sur­pris­ing and refreshing.

How do I even learn to play the human way?
Smiles without a heart, weird mech­an­ic­al mistakes
Lyrics from 'Stardust' by IAMX

The title track 'Alive In New Light' fol­lows with an almost oper­at­ic med­it­a­tion on rising from the ashes. The song is joy­ous on the brink of euphor­ia. Nevertheless, Chris Corner can not deny the touch of mel­an­choly in this piece. But that doesn't mat­ter, the song bursts of emo­tion at its seams. It's def­in­itely a song that you really appre­ci­ate if you have ever left a deep val­ley behind you.

The summit of the album

The stac­cato rhythm on 'Break The Chain' stresses the urgency in Corner's soar­ing, plaint­ive lyr­ics and vocals. His vocal power and vari­ation is out­stand­ing and cov­ers one with goose bumps all over. 'Break The Chain' is one of the high­lights on 'Alive In New Light' for me and should there­fore be taken as a ref­er­ence tip here.

IAMX - Promo image 2018
IAMX (Promo image 2018)

'Body Politics' mar­ries a sleazy elec­tro funk groove to a Nine Inch Nails-like fer­vour. "It's about try­ing to con­sume the club, los­ing your­self in rhythm and pagan, prim­or­di­al ele­ments, release without a deep mes­sage", Chris explains. In terms of tempo, 'Body Politics' is prob­ably the song with the fast­est beat. So it's ideal to hit the dance­floor with. I'm def­in­itely look­ing for­ward to whichever club I'll be hear­ing the track first.

Inspiration from the early 90s

'Exit' echoes Björk's cubist bal­ladry with a pulsat­ing beat. Sonically it reminds me espe­cially of Björk's debut album which is also my favour­ite. By build­ing an intense and spher­ic­al atmo­sphere this is a per­fect song to dream and drift away.

'Stalker' trans­ports the listen­er to an exot­ic, seduct­ive, and mys­ter­i­ous par­al­lel plane where love and obses­sion blur. During the duet with 'Kat von D', a cold shiver ran down my spine. Wow, what a nearly per­fect, highly emo­tion­al and vocal duo. The words 'knock, knock' inex­plic­ably stifle my breath.

Hallelujah to the apo­ca­lypse in my head. Knock, Knock
I'm here for you.
Who's there?
Just the etern­al fool.
Lyric line in 'Stalker' by IAMX

When even the valley is on a high water level

'Big Man' con­tem­plates our cur­rent dis­mal polit­ics with a creepy cir­cus-like sound­scape that could be the scenery of a Tim Burton movie. Unfortunally, I find this is one of the weak­est songs on 'Alive In New Light'. Furthermore, it reminds me strongly of the song 'The Golden Age Of Grotesque' by 'Marilyn Manson', but without the insane charm of the old shock rocker.

Overwhelmed by feelings

'Mile Deep Hollow', des­pite its dark and omin­ous tones, is full of an expres­sion of grat­it­ude. Already the first notes and the deep strings cre­ate an oppress­ive feel­ing. 'IAMX' guides us through a beau­ti­ful, mel­an­chol­ic piece of dif­fer­ent emo­tions. I was so touched by the song, it brought tears to my eyes – amaz­ingly beautiful.

'The Power and the Glory', a ref­er­ence to the Lord's Prayer, closes the album, bury­ing the past and sow­ing hope for the future. Even the all too typ­ic­al piano bal­lad at the end of almost every album is some­thing spe­cial here: I caught myself as I got totally lost in thoughts dur­ing this track. But the song's instru­ment­a­tion offers much more than just piano – from the second half it builds up its oppu­lence with more and more elec­tron­ic instruments.

An impact like a hammer studded with brilliants

'IAMX' fans must be strong, the album 'Alive In New Light' hosts only 9 songs. But they are all primev­al forces and damn amaz­ing com­pos­i­tions. There are no gap fillers and that is what divides a mas­ter­piece from a usu­al good album.

'Alive In New Light' is one of the most var­ied albums I've heard lately. Chris Corner's seem­ingly end­less amount of ideas is worth a praise. This album is a must have in 2018. Go and get this mas­ter­piece now!

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2018‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

IAMX - Alive In New Light
IAMX – Alive In New Light
Stardust
Alive In New Light
Break The Chain
Body Politics
Exit
Stalker
Big Man
Mile Deep Hollow
The Power And The Glory
Recommend
Stardust
Break The Chain
Body Politics
Weak
(Nothing to report here)
4.1
Extraordinary

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Founder
  1. Completely agree with your review. The last 2 IAMX records took time to grow on me, but I was mes­mer­ised by this one from the begin­ning. It really is a well put togeth­er record worthy of your time.

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Stardust
Alive In New Light
Break The Chain
Body Politics
Exit
Stalker
Big Man
Mile Deep Hollow
The Power And The Glory
Final Score