Ex:Re - Save As [LP]

There is no grand, overarching storyline to Save As, the second solo album from Elena Tonra'sEx: Re project. Rather, the album - produced by Fabian Prynn and also featuring JosephineStephenson on cello, Hinako Omori on synthesisers, Ben Reed on bass and Jethro Fox on electricguitar - is the latest in the Daughter lead singer's catalogue of expert chronicles of the gnawingminutiae of human consciousness: the over-thinking that consumes us, and the places we travelto escape.The title of album opener "Radio Station", which begins with stately strummed acoustic guitarand morphs into a trippy song about an endless California roadtrip, is a metaphor for howTonra feels about her mind. "I end up getting stuck because I can't make decisions," she says.Demo recordings live on in many of the final cuts, as on "Sleep", which Tonra first recorded in ahotel room in Paris. The final version features a melodic loop made from the demo's acousticguitar run through a vocoder and a drum machine, which together offer a muffled quality to thesound, like hearing a party through a wall.Other tracks, such as the stand-out "Am I Even Real?", a Tonra-Prynn duet on which Tonra singsabout spaceships to ask whether she is being true to herself in a relationship, found their trueversion in the studio. That combination of long-held ideas stored in notebooks and on laptopswith unfiltered first thoughts and improvisations is key to the album's perfect mingling ofliveliness and deep thoughtfulness.