choke enough

Choke Enoughis the debut album by French musician Oklou. It's a kind of synth pop that is accompanied by heavily processed vocals. It reminded my a lot of Caroline Polachek, but the compositions are not as good. The songs miss a clear structure and backbone, they are like meandering streams: just flowing somewhere in a non disrupting way. If you don't focus on it, this album moves itself to the background.

Really enjoyed this. Ethereal and soothing!

Lush dreamy electronica that’s all floaty atmosphere and icey cold glistening surfaces. Synthy textures cut with warm organic instruments make a bedding for ethereal reverby hushed vocals that weave in and out, jumping over and below the surface for a neon pink oceanic feeling. The EDM touches loose it for a split seconds, but then it returns to an ambient trance hazy feeling stuff. Pretty cool wow.

Couple of bangers here

I recently said I side-eye recent albums being on here, like this one, but this album is a fantastic pop album and should be more popular than it is. Pitchfork was right to put it on their list of Best Albums of the Year last year.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Family and friends, Take me by the hand, Harvest sky, Blade bird

A great album and been listening to it since it came out last year but I don't think it's all that essential. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

4 amazing

This is very interesting, not sure what it reminds me of.. just like the vague idea of 2000s internet, I guess? Think music for old flash games with ethereal vocals over it. Very ethereal. Maybe too ethereal at times - sometimes it gets a bit too lost in its own sauce. It's pretty cool though. Not one of my favorite things I've listened to on here, but I enjoyed it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I quite like the way this record sounded, with lots of arpeggiated synths skittering around in the stereo field. Sounds like what I imagine it would look like if you could watch synapses firing.

Kinda whispery girl 2020s nonsense. I didn’t mind it! Like it even! But this entire movement in the “pop” scene is baffling to me and making me feel old.

This came and went without leaving an impression on me. Apple Music says 'pop'

Synth-pop, hyperpop, bedroom pop, hypnagogic pop, art pop. Ni fu ni fa.

She seems very talented but I'm not a fan of this style of music. Reminds me a bit of Bon Iver, and the same reason I don't like most of his stuff. 3 stars.

3/5

I'm fine with most things in modern music but autotune remains my one old-man-yells-at-clouds moment. Even on a really decent album like Oklou's Choke Enough, I just can't get past it. I know it's here to stay; some battles I just accept I've lost.

The muddy start had be dubious but it settled down and I ended up liking it pretty well. Heavy ha dedicated with the reverb though.

French Pop. Found it more palatable than similar stuff, but not something I would necessarily keep listening to if it came up in rotation.

Huge critical hype for this one last year. It's funny, I am French and I can swear to you your average music listener over there has never heard of Marylou Mayniel. In a sense I am really happy one user suggested this record, because I intended to listen to this one properly one day. Superficial spins told me that I had more urgent fish to fry at the time of this debut's release, but I had not closed the proverbial door to it yet. Verdict: it still seems that the critical hype is *way* overrated for me. Musically, the songs explore soft electronic pop tones, served in a vague new-ageish presentation. The vocals are mostly unobtrusive and lacking in character (ironically, compared to lot of other older reviewers I wish the use of autotune had been wilder to bring some extra flavors here). Interesting minimalistic neoclassical-inspired arrangements -- such as the ones found in "obvious" and "ict" -- are the elements that could have helped oklou stand out from the modern pop / hyperpop pack. But unfortunately they are soon dropped for blander tones. One VERY CLEAR exception: "Harvest Sky", with its infectious earworms that have the skilled paws of underscores / April Harper Grey all over them. I can sense her input from a mile out here. I do believe that underscores has the future of hyperpop in her hands and I can't wait to give a 5/5 grade to *Wallsocket* on this generator. To return to the subject of *choke enough*, it is for the most part aimless, directionless, what have you. The tones are always "pleasant" don't get me wrong. Yet in my book, "pleasant" is not a good enough requirement for this generator, sorry. You need to be thrilled, entranced, or excited. 2/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums 7/10 for more general purposes (5 for the overall musicianship and production values + 2 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 119 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 134 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 295 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

choke enough is okay at times but loses me with the autotune vocals, 2/5.

Two days ago, I'd never heard of that day's artist, underscores, and here she is guesting on today's album. This one didn't do it for me nearly as much though; it felt a little insubstantial and lacking in agency. A high two, because it wasn't unpleasant.

It was nice but unremarkable. And the auto tune grew to be quite annoying marked feature

Even as the album grew on me slightly, the whole experience felt ungrounded and lacking in substance. There’s not much to grip onto here in the minimal instrumentation or whispery vocals, the tracks just flit in and out of existence without leaving much of a mark. Perhaps this is a more experimental effort I’m missing the mark on, but overall this LP left me pretty high and dry.

Not really my thing. It's a bit dreamy pop. But the vocals aren't 'pure' enough to get me fully into it

Hyperpop, featuring another brand new add on this list...it was fine for a listen but seems souless

Not bad

C'mon guys I have 3 daughters that commaneer the car stereo on long trips and play hours on this genre. It's ok but so so so so not original!! ffs try something original? FKA Twigs for instance?