Flasher are a different band on their second full-length album, 2022's
Love Is Yours, and they sound like it. Co-founder
Daniel Saperstein left the group after touring behind their 2018 debut,
Constant Image, and while they previously worked in the studio as a guitar-bass-drum trio,
Taylor Mulitz and
Emma Baker took his departure as an opportunity to shake up their working methods. For
Love Is Yours,
Mulitz and
Baker became multi-instrumentalists, adding a variety of different sounds beside producer
Owen Wuerker and incorporating new influences along the way. Some of the scrappy punk energy of
Constant Image has faded away on
Love Is Yours, but in its place,
Flasher have grown into a first-rate indie pop band, melding acoustic and electronic textures, blending electric guitars and sweet vocal harmonies, and fielding tunes as diverse as the herky-jerky "Spell It Out," the sensuously languid "All Day Long," and the joyous pop explosion of "Still Life." The fine grit of the guitar-based
Constant Image will certainly be missed by some fans, though in its place,
Love Is Yours introduces a band more willing to push against their stylistic boundaries, and even if this music is less your cup of tea than the debut, there's no arguing that they're great at this stuff.
Love Is Yours often sounds like an album
Flasher couldn't have made in 2018, and that growth and new thinking has as much to do with the different sound as any conscious desire to rework their approach; the result speaks of musical maturity as well as a youthful joy in the possibilities of their creative process. It's an engaging delight that will grow on old fans and likely win
Flasher plenty of new ones. ~ Mark Deming
