When doing the totally-adorable, sincere-laptop-kid thing, there’s a fine line to be walked between bull’s-eyeing the heart of the listener and choking on your own sparkles and heartbreak. And with the release of Wider, Tender Forever is walking that line precariously.
On her second album, singer and multi-instrumentalist Melanie Valera presents us with 12 glitch-ballads that are, initially, as colorful and playful as the neon campfire and fashion mullet that grace the album cover. So where Valera opts to work ingenuity over kitsch, she’s good at what she does, blending her husky vocals with layers of drum beats, synth chords, and chimes. Songs like opener “Tiny Heart and Clever Hand” catch your ear with sparkling keyboards and Valera’s most earnest attempts at wolf howls, as she sings “And if the wolves ever show up/ And if they bark all night to keep you up/ We should go out and walk barefoot/ We should measure your longest tooth.”
If such whimsical lyrics are what get Tender Forever under your skin, it’s the lack of balance with Valera’s orchestration that too often compels you to skip tracks before they’re finished. It’s nice to have the occasional whiny, pleading melody on an album, but when that characteristic is present on nearly every track, you feel overwhelmed and irritated. Valera is no doubt a creative musician, but upper-octave synth lines and gauzy vocal harmonies plow through nearly every track just as things start to get interesting. And this, unfortunately, paves the way for the monotony that is characteristic of most of Wider. Valera’s rollercoaster voicings, pleading yelps, and drum machine clicks seem almost formulaic, lacking any catchiness or gusto that would allow you to overlook this.
But Tender Forever isn’t hopeless — the album features acoustic respites with two songs that reassure us that Valera is more than a less interesting, female version of YACHT. The compelling piano honesty of “Nicer If They Tried” features stripped-down instrumentation and a single vocal track (as opposed to wedding-cake-layered harmonies) that make her quivering voice delicate and thoughtful rather than annoying. Similarly, the acoustic strums of “I’m So Tired” reveal the potential for the variety and distinction that Wider otherwise lacks.
It’s not that Valera should abandon her laptop tinkering — far from it. But to let her electro innovation and skill stand out, she needs to divvy-up creative elements between songs rather than cram all of them into each. And with a title like Wider, Tender Forever’s latest album only serves to remind us to which extent we'd like to see her grow as an artist.