Eartheater practices her own strain of poetic alchemy. Shapeshifting between electronic experimentation and acoustic texture, the Queens-based artist has long delved into themes of erosion and lithification, along with the infinite possibilities of metamorphosis. On her new album Powders, alchemical forces connect ideas from every stage of her career just as they dissolve her practice into atomized particles ripe for reconstitution.  

Powders positions Eartheater at a fertile crossroads, embracing collaboration in production and professional studio recording practices while honing her pop songwriting and her lyrics to their most vivid state to date – all without losing the thread of experimentation that has always enlivened her work. “I’m drawn to the way a pop song can sound like sugar until you realize it’s laced with poetic bitters and remedy,” she explains.  

Powders and its forthcoming sister album Aftermath took their initial shape within the hallowed walls of Sunset Sound in Hollywood. In Eartheater’s hands, the archetype of “LA pop” in all its contrasting visions of glamor and turbulence morphs into another tool to add to her wide arsenal. Powders offers the most unabashed pop of her career, radio friendly in its concise song structures and its exploration of atmospheres that might appear more pleasant on the surface. Yet Eartheater can’t help but subvert that idiom, drawing our attention towards the granular details of each cascading vocal performance and the surrealism of each lyrical turn of phrase. 

Powders draws varied energies from Eartheater’s own omnivorous tastes as a songwriter and from her stable of collaborators, showcasing production that shifts between mutated dance music, unadorned folk balladry, trip-hop, and more. As the distinction between genres begins to fade away in the mosaic view of Powders, we follow her words and her transfixing multi-octave melodic runs wherever they may take us.